Feb. 2 (GeokHub) — Chinese tech giant Alibaba (9988.HK) announced on Monday that it will spend 3 billion yuan ($431 million) to promote its Qwen AI app during the upcoming Lunar New Year holiday, intensifying the competition among China’s leading technology firms.
The campaign, set to begin on Feb. 6, will include incentives for dining, drinks, entertainment, and leisure, with “large red envelopes distributed continuously,” according to Alibaba.
This budget triples the spending of rivals Tencent (0700.HK) and Baidu (9888.HK), who pledged 1 billion yuan and 500 million yuan, respectively, for similar AI promotions. Tencent’s campaign, promoting its Yuanbao chatbot app, begins this Sunday and requires users to upgrade their app to claim digital red envelopes, which can be withdrawn into WeChat wallets.
Alibaba did not specify whether its rewards will be cash-based or redeemable as discounts across its platforms, including e-commerce giant Taobao.
Lunar New Year, which this year spans nine days beginning Feb. 15, has long been a marketing battleground for Chinese tech companies. Notably, in 2015, Tencent leveraged WeChat to distribute digital red envelopes, helping its WeChat Pay service gain ground against Alipay.
The current push reflects rising competition in China’s AI sector, accelerated by DeepSeek’s launch of its R1 AI model in January 2025, which spurred both faster adoption of AI tools and intensified rivalry among domestic tech giants. DeepSeek is expected to launch its next-generation V4 AI model with enhanced coding capabilities in mid-February.
