With the Lunar New Year just around the corner, the event that is traditionally characterized by family gatherings, traveling, and spending, the technology giants in China are again transforming the holiday into a digital battlefield of high stakes. The competition this year, however, is not based only on food delivery applications or payment services. It concerns artificial intelligence. Alibaba has said it is going to spend 3 billion yuan or about $431 million in marketing its Qwen AI app over the festive season, which will be among the largest consumer-focused efforts in AI marketing the nation has experienced to date.
The size of the investment is an instant differentiator of Alibaba. The figure is close to three times what its nearest competitors have committed towards similar programs, which indicates that the company is considering this time to be the turning point. The Lunar New Year provides a unique meeting point of attention, time, and the digital world. People are spending hundreds of millions of hours on their phone on the long commute home or a relaxing time with their loved ones and it is a perfect opportunity to define user behavior. Alibaba seems to be bent on making sure that Qwen joins such habits.
The company claims that the campaign will commence on February 6 and will be based on the incentives related to the daily routines like meals, beverages, entertainment, and recreation. Alibaba wrote that on day one users will be rewarded with big red envelopes and they are given in a continuous manner, which draws upon a culturally strong image of prosperity and good fortune. One of the most suitable instruments of the internet economy in China is the digital red envelope, which merges the traditional and the instant satisfaction. Although the message does not state whether such rewards are going to be in direct cash or redeemable discounts, the message is clearer: Alibaba wants Qwen to feel useful, rewarding, and present in the everyday life.
This action comes at the time when rivals intensify their activities. At the end of last month, Tencent and Baidu declared that they would invest 1billion yuan and 500million yuan respectively to market their AI chatbot products within the same month. The advertisement campaign of Tencent revolves around its Yuanbao chatbot application and encompasses a system whereby a person can redeem their rewards in their WeChat wallets. The users are also allowed to share linkages where other users are given cash incentives, a common viral expansion strategy that has fueled most of Tencent successes in the past.
The similarities are quite apparent to anyone who has observed the technological sector in China during the last ten years. Lunar New Year has served as a catapult of significant digital adoption for a long time. In 2015, Tencent made a defining move when it used WeChat to distribute digital red envelopes, which had a sudden effect of rapidly growing WeChat Pay and putting Alipay in competition in mobile payments. The episode transformed the financial technology of China and demonstrated how fast the behavior of the users could shift once the culture, convenience, and incentives are aligned.
The history appears to be the factor that informed the current strategy of Alibaba. The company is integrating Qwen into the common social and economic practices as opposed to framing it as a niche or a merely technical product. This portrays a larger perception of the fact that adoption of AI on a large scale is not just limited to the performance of the model. It is concerning trust, accessibility, and repetition with daily situations. To a great number of users, the initial encounter with an AI chatbot might be not due to an interest towards technology but it may be a small prize gained during a vacation.
The time is also noteworthy since competition in the field of AI in China has become acute within the last year. In January last year, the introduction of DeepSeek R1 model created a shock in the markets of artificial intelligence around the world and stimulated domestic production. Since that time, Chinese companies have been operating more quickly, publishing updates more regularly and competing to the users more generally than doing so to enterprise clients or backend services.
A number of companies will launch upgrades during the days leading to the holiday. DeepSeek, specifically, has been said to be planning to release its next-generation V4 model in mid-February, and one that would focus heavily on its coding abilities. Such advances bring burden to the well-established players such as Alibaba, Tencent and Baidu to prove their technical relevancy and consumer-attractiveness as well.
The most notable thing about the announcement made by Alibaba is the confidence that is portrayed by the amount spent. The 3 billion yuan on a single promotional drive is an indicator that the company perceives the user acquisition of AI services as a long-term investment and not a short-term marketing expense. After users develop a habit of using a chatbot in their lives, the cost of switching may turn both mental and physical. Knowing each other, in turn, results in loyalty, and with time, an AI assistant will learn tastes and preferences, the way a person speaks, and what they need on a daily basis.
Meanwhile, this high level of expenditure brings up the issue of sustainability. The power of incentive-driven growth is not always sustainable. Customers who are interested in rewards are likely to lose interest after the promotions are over unless the product or service that can be obtained provides any discernible continuous value. Alibaba will have the difficulty of transforming festival interest into sustained dependency where Qwen is seen to be of real value even after the holiday season ends.
The wider question of general perception is also present. With the increase in the visibility of AI tools in the daily life of people, fears of data privacy, accuracy, and overreliance will probably increase. Consumerism amongst the Chinese is also becoming more tech-savvy and selective. Whilst they can have fun trying new apps during the Lunar New Year, they do not hesitate to drop the services that make them feel intruded upon or that they do not need. Development of trust will be as significant as provision of incentives.
Nevertheless, the present moment seems to be a turning point. The 2026 Lunar New Year can be visited not just with the traditional festivities and travel but also be remembered as a turning point in the consumer AI competition of China. This is an ambitious step that Alibaba has taken to highlight the extent with which large technology firms are taking the chatbot market seriously. AI is no longer being locked up in laboratories, offices, or hypocritical debates on the future. It is being constructed into holidays, traditions, and even daily choices.
