3 billion milk tea free orders explode during Spring Festival! Qianwen surged to No. 1 on the App Store free chart, and the event page was overloaded!
Alibaba’s AI app Qianwen topped the Apple App Store free apps chart thanks to its "Spring Festival 3 Billion Free Orders" marketing campaign, which received enthusiastic responses and temporarily crashed the page due to overwhelming traffic.
On February 6 at noon, after Qianwen launched its free milk tea campaign, it quickly rose to the number one spot on the App Store's free app chart, surpassing ByteDance's Doubao and Tencent's Yuanbao. In less than three hours since the event went live, over a million free milk tea orders were given out. However, a surge of users caused the server to crash temporarily, and the event page displayed "The event is too popular, please try again later."
Despite the enthusiastic response to the campaign, Alibaba's stock price fell that day. Investors remain cautious about AI apps acquiring users through high subsidies, with the market focusing more on long-term profitability than on short-term download surges. Alibaba’s Hong Kong shares dropped 3%, closing at HK$155.4 per share.
Qianwen’s aggressive marketing also triggered ecosystem conflicts among platforms. WeChat has blocked Qianwen’s red envelope sharing link, forcing it to use password-based sharing instead. This marks Qianwen as the third AI app whose Spring Festival campaign has been restricted by WeChat, following Yuanbao and Baidu Wenxin Assistant.
Millions of users flooding in cause system bottlenecks
Qianwen APP’s "Spring Festival 3 Billion Free Orders" campaign launched on February 6 uses aggressive user incentive strategies. After updating the app, users receive a ¥25 no-threshold free order card, which can be used to purchase milk tea, New Year's goods, or order delivery via Taobao Flash Sale. For each new user invited, both parties get a ¥25 free order card, with a maximum of 21 cards per person.
The campaign is unprecedentedly popular, with surging user traffic temporarily crashing servers. On social platforms, Qianwen responded that it was urgently adding resources to ensure smooth service. The first wave of free orders will last until February 12, and the second wave will start from February 13, when users can receive up to ¥2,888 in cash red envelopes.
This marketing strategy triggered a chain reaction. Most tea beverage stocks in the Hong Kong market surged that day: Gu Ming jumped over 5% to a new all-time high, Cha Bai Dao rose more than 4%, and Shanghai Auntie and Mixue Group followed suit.
WeChat ecosystem blockade intensifies competitive barriers
Qianwen has become the third AI app to have its Spring Festival marketing campaign blocked by WeChat. WeChat indicates its links contain content that "induces or misleads downloads/jumps," requiring users to visit via a third-party browser. When some users share Qianwen's event in the app to WeChat friends, it automatically switches to password copying.
On February 4, the official WeChat account "WeChat Pie" issued a notice stating that Yuanbao’s Spring Festival marketing campaign induced users to frequently share links via tasks and red envelope rewards, disrupting the platform's ecosystem, and imposed restrictions on its violating links. WeChat’s PR director stated, "User experience comes first and is always treated equally." Subsequently, Yuanbao changed its WeChat red envelope sharing feature to "password red envelope."
On February 5, Baidu Wenxin Assistant’s red envelope sharing link was also blocked by WeChat. Baidu has adjusted to "password red envelope," where users must manually copy the password into the Baidu app to participate in the campaign. WeChat’s unified blocking action demonstrates its zero-tolerance towards third-party apps using the social relationship chain for viral marketing.
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