As the Chinese New Year (Spring Festival) approaches in February 2026, China's tech giants have turned the race for AI dominance into a full-blown marketing war — complete with massive subsidies, freebies, and digital "red envelopes." Leading the charge is Alibaba, whose Qwen AI chatbot triggered an extraordinary frenzy: long lines of delivery couriers outside bubble tea stores, overwhelmed chains, and the app rocketing to #1 on China's Apple App Store.
The Promotion That Broke the Bubble Tea Market
On February 6, 2026, Alibaba launched the first phase of its ambitious 3 billion yuan (~US$420–430 million) "Chinese New Year Treat Plan" to promote the Qwen AI app. The hook?
A simple, no-threshold 25 yuan voucher (~US$3.60) for a free milk tea (bubble tea) order — redeemable at over 300,000 participating outlets nationwide.
Users could claim the voucher simply by updating the app or placing an order via voice/text prompt in Qwen.
Even better (for virality): invite friends and earn up to 21 additional vouchers per person — one for each successful referral.
The result was explosive:
- Over 10 million free orders placed in just 9 hours (worth roughly 250 million yuan / ~US$36 million in total value).
- More than 1 million milk tea orders flooded in within the first 3 hours alone.
Major chains including Mixue, HeyTea, Chagee, Nayuki, and Luckin Coffee participated — but even these industry leaders were unprepared for the scale. Stores ran out of cups, ingredients, receipts, and packaging. Many temporarily closed or halted orders as counters overflowed with dozens of waiting drinks. Delivery riders (from platforms like Meituan) spent entire days queuing from one shop to another, creating visible chaos on the streets and social media.
Shop staff were far from thrilled — dealing with nonstop demand and system overload — but the campaign's marketing impact was undeniable.
Qwen Surges to #1 — Beating Tencent, ByteDance, and Others
The viral promotion drove a massive surge in downloads. Within hours, Qwen climbed from outside the top 10 to #1 on the free apps chart in China's Apple App Store, overtaking Tencent's Yuanbao (which had recently displaced ByteDance's Doubao).
This move came amid fierce competition among China's Big Tech players:
- Alibaba (Qwen) — 3 billion yuan total giveaway budget;
- Tencent (Yuanbao) — 1 billion yuan in red-envelope-style cash rewards withdrawable to WeChat;
- Baidu (Wenxin/Eric) — 500 million yuan in incentives;
- ByteDance (Doubao) — strong existing user base + exclusive tie-ins (e.g., CCTV Spring Festival Gala partnership).
The tactic echoes classic Chinese internet battles: flood the market with subsidies, vouchers, and social-sharing mechanics to rapidly acquire users. Just as WeChat once dominated payments through red-envelope wars, AI chatbots are now using the same playbook to force mass adoption ahead of the holiday.
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Why This Matters in the AI Race
Ordinary users in China aren't flocking to frontier AI models for their reasoning or coding skills alone — many need a real-world incentive. By integrating Qwen deeply with Alibaba's ecosystem (Taobao instant retail, food delivery, travel booking via Fliggy, etc.), Alibaba turned its chatbot into a practical shopping/delivery agent — and then supercharged adoption with holiday freebies.
While the campaign caused temporary outages in the Qwen app itself (Alibaba rushed to add servers), it proved effective: millions tried the AI in one day, many for the first time.
This "red envelope war" is just beginning. With Lunar New Year travel, family gatherings, and gift-giving peaking, expect more aggressive giveaways, cash drops, and ecosystem tie-ins from all major players. In China's hyper-competitive AI landscape, sometimes the fastest path to user growth isn't better benchmarks — it's free bubble tea.
Stay tuned — the battle for China's AI future is brewing one milk tea at a time!
