BEIJING — When it comes to AI chatbots, U.S. companies talk about building the best technology. In China, the fight is more about getting people to use apps every day — often by giving things away.
Nineteen-year-old delivery driver Li Hao says he usually uses ByteDance’s Doubao, the country’s most popular chatbot. But during the Lunar New Year holiday he tried Alibaba’s Qwen because the company was giving away milk tea for orders placed through the chatbot. “I tried it and got a milk tea,” he said. “After that, I didn’t use it again.”
That promotional tactic captures the front lines of China’s chatbot wars. Major tech firms and startups — including Alibaba, Tencent, ByteDance, Baidu, Moonshot AI and DeepSeek — have poured money into holiday promotions to win users and show how AI can be useful in everyday life, especially for shopping and transactions.
Alibaba said it set aside more than $430 million for holiday promotions. Tencent and Baidu handed out millions in coupons and prizes. Morgan Stanley estimates the top apps spent over $1.1 billion combined on Lunar New Year promotions, a period when people traditionally exchange cash-filled red envelopes.
“Competition between domestic Chinese tech players [is] heating up again, which I believe is a good thing…from the perspective of innovation,” said George Chen, a tech analyst with the Asia Group in Hong Kong. He likens this surge in spending to a decade-old promo battle between Alibaba and Tencent over payment apps, which helped rapidly grow China’s e-commerce sector. “History is repeating,” he said.
The new battleground is getting users to transact through AI. Qwen, for example, can take an order with a simple prompt — “I want to order a milk tea” — showing nearby options, customizing the drink and handling payment in-app if you use Alipay. Doubao is integrated into Douyin (China’s TikTok), acting like a DM companion. Tencent’s Yuanbao is folded into WeChat and tied to WeChat Pay. These integrations let chatbots do more than order food; they can book flights, hail rides or schedule doctor appointments within a single conversation.
Analysts say Alibaba sees Qwen as a gateway to becoming an “everything app,” where the AI model becomes the primary interface for many online and even offline activities. Kyle Chan of the Brookings Institution says Alibaba envisions its model as the starting point for interacting with a wide range of services.
The giveaways drove heavy traffic. QuestMobile reported more than 73.5 million people used Qwen on Feb. 7 during the promotion surge. ByteDance’s Doubao exceeded 144 million daily users after promotions tied to the state-run Lunar New Year TV gala. But the frenzy also caused real-world disruption; videos and reports showed chaos in some takeout shops as orders spiked.
Keeping users after the holiday rush is the challenge. Daily use has fallen since the promotions, according to media reports. Li Hao returned to Doubao after trying Qwen for the free milk tea. “I still prefer using Doubao,” he said.
For Chinese tech companies, the battle isn’t only about model quality but about embedding AI into existing super-app ecosystems so chatbots become convenient, habitual ways to do real transactions — and customers’ habits, says the industry, may determine which platforms stick around after the freebies end.
