In a major strategic escalation of China’s “chatbot war,” Alibaba Group announced on February 2, 2026, that it will invest 3 billion yuan ($431 million) to promote its Qwen AI app during the upcoming Lunar New Year holiday.
The move is a direct challenge to domestic rivals Tencent and Baidu, with Alibaba tripling the marketing spend previously pledged by its competitors for the same period.
The Strategy: Digital Red Envelopes
The campaign, set to launch on February 6, 2026, leverages the traditional Chinese custom of gifting “hongbao” (red envelopes) to drive mass user adoption of generative AI.
Consumer Incentives: The funds will be distributed as digital rewards and coupons for dining, entertainment, leisure, and drinks.
Continuous Distribution: Alibaba stated that these “large red envelopes” will be distributed continuously throughout the holiday period (which officially begins February 15).
Feature Integration: The push follows recent updates to Qwen that added agentic capabilities, allowing users to complete food deliveries and in-chat purchases directly through the AI interface.
The 2026 AI Competitive Landscape
The “Year of the Horse” is proving to be a high-stakes turning point for Chinese Big Tech as they pivot from building models to aggressive user acquisition.
| Company | Lunar New Year Spend | Primary AI Focus |
| Alibaba | 3 Billion Yuan | Qwen (Focus on 3.5 model launch & integrated payments). |
| Tencent | 1 Billion Yuan | Yuanbao (Leveraging the WeChat ecosystem). |
| Baidu | 500 Million Yuan | Ernie Bot (Maintaining legacy leadership). |
| ByteDance | Unspecified | Doubao (Currently China’s most-downloaded AI app). |
Context: The “DeepSeek” Effect
Industry analysts note that this spending surge is partly a response to the recent international success of DeepSeek, a low-cost Chinese AI startup that disrupted the market in early 2026. Established giants like Alibaba are now using their massive capital reserves to secure “platform lock-in” before emerging players can scale.
“Alibaba is betting big on digital red envelopes to win users during China’s biggest holiday. They looked at the competition’s numbers and essentially tripled down to ensure Qwen becomes the go-to household assistant.” — Tech Market Analysis, Feb 2026
