Alibaba Launches Major Consumer AI Push with Free Qwen Chatbot to Challenge Market Leaders

Alibaba unveils major consumer AI upgrade with new Qwen chatbot

The new free app, based on its Qwen large language model, is available as a mobile application and website. It has entered public beta testing and is being billed as "the best personal AI assistant with the most powerful model," the company said in a statement on Monday. China's Alibaba has launched a major upgrade to its AI chatbot, marking an aggressive push into the consumer artificial intelligence market where it has lagged rivals. The new free app, based on its Qwen large language model, is available as a mobile application and website. It has entered public beta testing and is being billed as "the best personal AI assistant with the most powerful model," the company said in a statement on Monday. The move represents a strategic shift for Alibaba, which has not ploughed significant resources into developing its ChatGPT-style consumer app, instead focusing largely on enterprise customers as part of its cloud services offering. China's brutal AI price war It also comes amid a brutal price war in China's domestic AI sector triggered by DeepSeek, which has prioritized low-cost compute costs, forcing its competitors to follow suit. Alibaba has had some consumer-facing AI apps, including the Tongyi app, which Qwen is rebranded from, as well as AI assistant services embedded in its Quark browser. But this marks the first time Alibaba has made such a serious push into the consumer market. Despite being among the first Chinese companies to release a consumer AI assistant app to the public in late 2023, Tongyi has failed to achieve widespread adoption. The app had 6.96 million monthly active users in September, according to AI product tracker Aicpb.com. Market leader ByteDance's Doubao had 150 million monthly active users, while DeepSeek had 73.4 million and Tencent followed with 64.2 million.

Alibaba Launches Free 'Qwen' AI Assistant, Aiming To Be The 'Everything App' For Work And Life - Alibaba Gr Hldgs (NYSE:BABA)

Alibaba Group Holding Limited (NYSE:BABA) is making a stronger push into consumer artificial intelligence by launching a significant upgrade to its chatbot, aiming to catch up with rivals after falling behind in the fast-growing market. The company, which released a free mobile and web app in China based on its most advanced Qwen language model, said an international version is coming soon. Now users can ask the chatbot to create complete research reports and multi-slide PowerPoint presentations instantly. The Qwen App is promoting itself as a powerful personal AI assistant in public beta, Reuters reported on Tuesday. Also Read: Alibaba Unlocks New Value With Qwen AI Push, Singles' Day Sales Surge And Shares Climb The $376 billion Alibaba AI endeavor helped it gain 87% in stock value year to date. However, Alibaba also grappled with intense rivalry and steep price cuts in China's AI industry, especially after low-cost rival DeepSeek sparked a price war. Alibaba has offered consumer AI tools before, including the older Tongyi app and AI features in its Quark browser, but they made limited traction. Tongyi had just under 7 million monthly active users in September, far behind leaders like ByteDance's Doubao and DeepSeek, each with tens of millions more users. Analysts say Alibaba's new AI app, Qwen, could become China's version of a "super-app" for the AI era -- much like Tencent Holding Ltd's (OTC:TCEHY) WeChat transformed the smartphone era. Boosted by Alibaba Cloud's homegrown Qwen AI models, the consumer app quickly jumped into the top five free apps on Apple Inc.'s (NASDAQ:AAPL) store in both Hong Kong and mainland China during its second day of beta testing. Alibaba pitches Qwen as an all-in-one personal AI assistant that can handle work and everyday tasks, from in-depth research to creating images and slides. The company wants Qwen to evolve beyond a chatbot into an "everything app" that changes how people interact with digital services, Beijing-based tech analyst Poe Zhao told SCMP. Alibaba has a significant advantage: its massive ecosystem already spans shopping, payments, food delivery, mapping, and entertainment. Alibaba plans to roll out Qwen globally and directly compete with ChatGPT to define the future "everything app." "If Alibaba executes well, Qwen could set the standard for AI-powered apps -- not just in China, but worldwide," Zhao said. BABA Price Action: Alibaba Group Holding shares were up 0.12% at $157.91 at the time of publication on Tuesday. BABAAlibaba Group Holding Ltd $159.190.94% Overview AAPLApple Inc $267.740.10% TCEHYTencent Holdings Ltd $79.84-1.35% Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs