Home / Business and Economy / Alibaba Bets Big on AI with 3 Billion Yuan Boost
Alibaba Bets Big on AI with 3 Billion Yuan Boost
2 Feb
Summary
- Alibaba plans to spend 3 billion yuan on its Qwen AI app.
- Promotions are set to begin on February 6 for Lunar New Year.
- This spending significantly surpasses rivals Tencent and Baidu.
Chinese tech giants are escalating their competition in the artificial intelligence sector, with Alibaba announcing a significant investment of 3 billion yuan ($431 million) to promote its Qwen AI app.
This extensive campaign is scheduled to commence on February 6, coinciding with the lead-up to the Lunar New Year holiday. Alibaba's pledge far exceeds the combined spending of its major rivals, Tencent and Baidu, who previously announced investments of 1 billion yuan and 500 million yuan, respectively, for their AI chatbot promotions.
The Lunar New Year period, beginning February 15 and lasting nine days this year, has historically been a critical marketing battleground for Chinese technology firms. Companies leverage this time, when hundreds of millions travel, to attract new users, a strategy exemplified by Tencent's successful use of WeChat red envelopes in 2015 to boost its payment service.
