Alibaba introduces AI chatbot in consumer market push
What's the story
Alibaba has launched a new artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot assistant service, marking its re-entry into the consumer-facing sector. The service is integrated into Alibaba's Quark app, which was originally a browser but has been repositioned this year as the company's main consumer application with added AI capabilities like search functions. The free-to-use service provides users with an interface for text or voice conversations, offering real-time information and services.
Market competition
Alibaba's AI push
Alibaba's move comes as a direct challenge to market leaders ByteDance and Tencent. The company has mainly focused its AI efforts on enterprise clients through its cloud services division. This new launch is an attempt to win over consumers in a space where it has struggled with the Tongyi AI assistant app. Despite being one of the first Chinese firms to launch a consumer-facing AI assistant app in late 2023, Tongyi hasn't been able to achieve mass adoption.
Adoption challenges
Disparity in user numbers
As of September, Alibaba's Tongyi AI assistant app had only 6.96 million monthly active users, according to AI product tracker Aicpb.com. This is a far cry from market leader ByteDance's Doubao which had 150 million monthly active users at the time. DeepSeek and Tencent followed with 73.4 million and 64.2 million monthly active users, respectively.
Tech upgrade
Tech upgrade for Alibaba
The AI chat assistant in Quark is powered by Alibaba's latest Qwen3 models. These models provide enhanced reasoning, understanding, and execution capabilities to the service. This tech upgrade could give Alibaba an edge over its competitors in the consumer-facing sector of AI chatbots.
Product launch
Quark AI Glasses pre-sale begins
Along with the AI chatbot, Alibaba also announced the pre-sale of its Quark AI Glasses on Friday. The smart glasses, priced at 4,699 yuan ($660), will be available for order fulfillment starting December. This move further strengthens Alibaba's position in the wearable tech space and shows its commitment to integrating AI into consumer products.