Alibaba's AI super gateway—Qianwen APP officially launched, free to access

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On November 16, Alibaba’s "strongest large model"—the Qwen APP—was quietly launched in app stores.

Regarding this “blockbuster”, Alibaba officially announced on Monday that the Qwen APP has officially opened for public testing. This large model is “open for free and available to everyone”, with the web and PC versions also being launched simultaneously. This also marks Alibaba’s full entry into the AI to C (consumer) market.

Open for free and available to everyone, Alibaba is using its strongest model to create the best personal AI assistant. It can not only “chat” with users but also “get things done” for them, creating a future AI life gateway that will gradually cover office, maps, health, shopping, and other aspects of daily life. The Qwen APP public beta is now available in major app stores, with web and PC versions released at the same time.

This move also confirms previous media reports. According to insiders, Alibaba was planning a major overhaul and rebranding of its flagship AI app “Tongyi,” renaming it “Qwen” to benchmark against the ChatGPT model.

Qwen—An Industry Leader Among Models

The Qwen model behind the Qwen APP has long been referred to as the “source god” among developers, and it’s the most popular model for enterprises.

According to public information, Alibaba’s Qwen large model began development three years ago and has now become one of the world’s leading open-source large models, with more than 600 million global downloads.

Some online users exclaimed, “The Qwen that swept Silicon Valley has now returned to China!”

The launch of Qwen APP has attracted much attention. This time, the Qwen3-Max model it carries is the largest and most powerful foundational model in the Qwen family, outperforming GPT-5, ranking among the global top three.

Qwen’s technical capabilities have also been recognized by industry leaders. According to reports, Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky publicly stated that the company is “heavily relying on Qwen” because it is “faster and better” than OpenAI’s model. NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang also stated that Qwen has taken a significant share of the global open-source model market.

Creating a One-stop AI Life Portal, with Minimalist App Design

“Qwen” is another group-level strategic project for Alibaba after “Gaode Street View Ranking.” Wu Jia is the person in charge, led by the Smart Information Business Group, with the participation of Alibaba Cloud, Tongyi Lab, Taotian, Gaode, and other departments.

Its aim is not only to “chat” with users, but also to “get things done” for them, gradually covering office, maps, health, shopping, and other scenarios.

To improve user experience, the app adopts a minimalist design and enables connected search by default to ensure information accuracy when answering real-time news and current affairs, thereby avoiding the hallucination problem inherent in large models.

In addition, the app integrates a variety of functions, such as image generation, AI photo editing, video calls, real-time translation, etc., and through powerful intent recognition, allows users to complete various tasks within a single chat box.

Too Popular? “Qwen” Crashed

On the first day of the public beta, the new AI app “Qwen” faced a traffic surge, with user overload causing partial service congestion and interruptions.

Multiple users reported that shortly after the official launch announcement, the app displayed “Entrances congested.” Some users said that after entering commands in the chatbox, they could not get a response, and the service was temporarily unavailable.

Strategic Shift from B-End to C-End, Officially Competing with “Doubao,” “Yuanbao,” and Others

For a long time, the commercial path of Chinese tech companies’ AI has mainly focused on the business (B-end) market. The release of the Qwen App highlights a key shift in Alibaba’s AI monetization strategy: a push towards the consumer (C-end) market.

Wallstreetcn wrote that, according to insiders, the revamped app plans to gradually add agentic-AI features in the coming months to support the shopping experience on main platforms such as Taobao. Alibaba hopes to attract and retain users by integrating its traditional e-commerce strengths. Although the Qwen App is currently free to users, building a large user base is a prerequisite for launching paid consumer services in the future.

Analysts believe this move also reflects the competitive pressure Alibaba faces in the AI consumer app market. By launching a more advanced AI app, Alibaba is directly competing with domestic “Doubao” from ByteDance, “Yuanbao” from Tencent, as well as global leaders like OpenAI.

Unified Branding: From “Tongyi” to “Qwen”

Renaming the app from “Tongyi” to “Qwen” is a key step in Alibaba’s unified AI branding strategy. The previous brand separation made it hard for ordinary users to understand the relationship between “Tongyi App” and the powerful “Qwen large model” behind it.

Some analysts say this move “aligns the names of the model and the product.” “Qwen” is no longer just a model for developers on platforms like Hugging Face but has become an application that ordinary users can download on their phones.

Wallstreetcn mentioned, citing insiders, that the company plans to integrate multiple AI apps under the “Qwen” brand to create a first-choice one-stop app for consumers.

This unified branding strategy aims to condense complex technical strengths into a clear, memorable brand symbol, thereby seizing the scarce “attention gateway” in the era of AI.

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