Qianwen 3 Billion Free Orders Launch Explained: Alibaba Brings AI to the Forefront of Spring Festival Consumption
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Author | Huang Yu
At the beginning of 2025, the sudden emergence of DeepSeek R1 plunged developers worldwide into sleepless nights of technological anxiety; but a year later, during the 2026 Spring Festival, this battle will be reignited in a more festive manner across the social circles and shopping carts of 1.4 billion people.
On February 2nd, Alibaba’s AI-native application, Qianwen APP, announced a 3 billion yuan investment to launch the “Spring Festival Treat Plan,” connecting Hema, Fliggy, Damai, Taobao Flash Sale, Tmall Supermarket and other businesses in the Alibaba ecosystem, inviting people across the nation to “eat, drink, and have fun” during the holiday with free orders and large red envelopes.
This is not only the biggest investment Alibaba has made in a Spring Festival event but also sets a new cap for the amount spent in this year’s Big Tech AI red envelope wars.
On the surface, this seems to be another return to the traditional “spending money for traffic” game. But within the industry, this 3 billion yuan expenditure is viewed less as simple marketing and more as a survival game for control of the AI era’s primary user entry point.
Alibaba is testing a highly ambitious path: through “saturated attacks” in high-frequency life scenarios, to induce users to shift their purchasing decisions from tapping on screens to sending AI commands, thus achieving a historic migration from "traffic entry" to "system-level entry."
For a long time, internet giants have built moats behind the high walls of their myriad apps. Users open Taobao to shop, switch to Fliggy to book tickets, jump to Tao Piao Piao for movies. This "island-style" consumer path was once the cornerstone of platform distribution efficiency.
However, the rise of AI Agents is tearing down these walls.
On January 15th, Qianwen APP announced that it had integrated Taobao Flash Sale, Alipay, Taobao, Fliggy, Amap and other Alibaba ecosystem scenarios, launching AI shopping features in test mode.
An insider from Qianwen APP told Wallstreetcn: “The launch half a month ago was actually preparation for the Spring Festival offensive. Most AI assistants on the market are still in the chatting phase, but Qianwen hopes to blend into real-life consumption during this year's Spring Festival.”
This “getting things done” logic is the core support for Qianwen’s Spring Festival offensive.
Some netizens have noticed that when searching for movie tickets, you can already buy tickets directly in the main chat page of Qianwen APP. Wallstreetcn learned from Qianwen insiders that the AI movie ticket buying feature is in grayscale testing and will soon go fully live.
So, for Alibaba, is this 3 billion yuan deal really worth it?
On the financial statements, 3 billion is undoubtedly a significant capital expenditure. But in the second half of the AI large model competition, the definition of customer acquisition cost is being rewritten.
Last Spring Festival, DeepSeek’s sensational popularity made the market realize that pure technological leadership can spark explosive word-of-mouth; but as the AI race enters its next phase, generational gaps in model capabilities are narrowing, “DeepSeek-style” tech dividends are hard to replicate, and boosting the “getting things done” ability and quickly capturing user mindshare has clearly become Alibaba’s core strategy to vie for the super entry point in the AI era.
But how to retain users, how to create a commercial closed loop for AI, is still the sword of Damocles hanging over every Big Tech company.
By using the highly universal method of “hosting a treat”, Alibaba hopes to complete a nationwide AI mindshare enlightenment in just half a month.
If 3 billion can make hundreds of millions of users accustomed to “going to AI for things,” then Alibaba has seized the most valuable commercial real estate of the AI era—the first touchpoint with user intent. Once this migration to a “system-level entry point” is proven feasible, Qianwen will no longer be just a tool app, but an AI operating system covering all scenarios.
At that point, traditional search ads and feed recommendations will shift to AI-driven intelligent distribution, and the commercial value behind this transition far exceeds what 3 billion yuan can measure.
Additionally, during the Spring Festival traffic peak, this battle is also a stress test of Alibaba’s ecosystem synergy. The event brings together nearly all of Alibaba’s top teams—Taobao, Alipay, Amap, etc.—and such seamless integration across business lines will face the toughest test during this holiday pilot.
However, this Spring Festival war is destined to be full of smoke.
By the 2026 Spring Festival, the AI battle between Big Tech companies has entered a white-hot phase. This year, Tencent Yuanbao fired the first Spring Festival red envelope shot, putting up 1 billion yuan in cash red envelopes; Baidu’s Wenxin launched a 500 million yuan Spring Festival red envelope campaign; and ByteDance’s Doubao secured an exclusive interactive partnership spot on CCTV’s Spring Festival Gala.
In this traditional “red envelope rain” battle formation, Alibaba has chosen a heavier path. It’s not satisfied with just handing out cash—it wants to use “free orders” as an enticing hook to win users’ “first experience” of the AI consumption chain.
According to Qianwen APP’s official Weibo, the “Qianwen Spring Festival Treat Plan” will officially launch on February 6th, emphasizing “eat, drink, play—all free orders nonstop,” plus large cash red envelopes. As for the specific free order rules, Alibaba told Wallstreetcn that details will be released later.
Last year was the moment for “deep thinking,” but this year is the time for “AI Agents.” Behind this shift is the collective anxiety of internet giants facing growth ceilings. As APP growth dividends are exhausted, whoever can first define the consumer paradigm of the AI era will have the right to speak for the next decade.
Qianwen’s 3 billion yuan offensive is like a deep-water bomb dropped into a calm lake. Whether it can truly ignite the first year of AI shopping and popularize the AI lifestyle remains to be seen.
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