TheBadPlaceundefined | China's chatbot industry is fiercely competing for customers. Cue the freebies by John Ruwitch
China’s chatbot market has turned into a fierce promotional battlefield, with firms abandoning pure technology supremacy in favor of everyday usage. ByteDance’s Doubao, Alibaba’s Qwen and Tencent’s Yuanbao are all bundled into the super‑apps that dominate Chinese digital life—Douyin, Alipay and WeChat—so users can summon a chatbot to order milk tea, pay bills or book a ride without ever leaving the app. The tactic that drew attention this Lunar New Year was literal: Qwen gave away a free milk‑tea if the order was placed through the bot, a move that succeeded in pulling users like 19‑year‑old delivery driver Li Hao into the platform, even if only briefly.
Behind the giveaways, companies poured astronomical sums into holiday promotions. Alibaba earmarked more than $430 million, while Tencent, Baidu and other players handed out millions in coupons and prizes; Morgan Stanley estimates that the top chatbots collectively spent over $1.1 billion during the Lunar New Year festivities. Analysts see this spending as a modern echo of past payment‑app wars, spurring rapid growth in China’s already‑robust e‑commerce ecosystem and reinforcing the notion that open competition fuels innovation.
The promotional blitz produced record‑breaking user spikes. QuestMobile reported 73.5 million daily active users on Qwen on February 7, and Doubao’s daily users topped 144 million after a televised New‑Year gala partnership. However, post‑holiday data show a sharp decline as the novelty fades, leaving firms to wrestle with retention. As Li Hao’s experience illustrates, even after a freebie, many consumers revert to their preferred chatbot—highlighting that while giveaways can ignite massive short‑term engagement, sustaining long‑term loyalty remains the next frontier in China’s AI chatbot wars.
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China Tech 🇨🇳 AI News
Nicolas MØUART
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