Alibaba Boosts Qwen AI App with $431M Lunar New Year Spend

Alibaba Group announced it will spend 3 billion yuan ($431 million) to attract users to its Alibaba Group===Qwen AI app during the Lunar New Year holiday, significantly escalating competition among China's largest tech firms. This campaign, starting February 6, triples the spending promised by rivals Tencent (1 billion yuan for its Yuanbao chatbot) and Baidu (500 million yuan for its chatbot). The promotions will involve incentives for dining, drinks, entertainment, and leisure, with 'large red envelopes distributed continuously.' Chinese tech companies traditionally use the Lunar New Year period, when hundreds of millions travel and spend time with family, as a marketing battleground for user acquisition. This year's nine-day public holiday, starting February 15, offers an extended window for engagement. Competition in China's AI sector has intensified since DeepSeek's R1 model launch last year, with DeepSeek expected to launch its V4 model in mid-February. Alibaba Group's aggressive spending underscores the central role of AI in its strategy to lock in users and build ecosystems.