Alibaba's Qwen Chatbot Achieves 10 Million Downloads, Outpacing Rivals
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Alibaba Group Holding’s new multipurpose artificial intelligence app, Qwen, recorded more than 10 million downloads in the first week of its public beta launch. The company said Qwen achieved this milestone faster than OpenAI’s ChatGPT or DeepSeek.
The strong debut of Qwen underscored the Chinese tech conglomerate’s efforts to establish a major AI assistant.
This assistant aims to rival Google’s Gemini chatbot and ChatGPT, which are not available in mainland China.
Powered by Alibaba Cloud’s open-source model family of the same name, Qwen is the firm’s most significant foray into the consumer AI market. Alibaba Cloud is the AI and cloud services unit of Hangzhou-based Alibaba.
The Hong Kong-listed shares of Alibaba, owner of the South China Morning Post, gained 4.67 per cent to close at HK$154.50 on Monday. Alibaba’s latest quarterly financial results are set to be released on Tuesday.
Qwen marked "Alibaba’s most significant step yet into the consumer AI market, aiming to transform its cutting-edge foundational AI model capabilities into real-life applications and tools", the company said in a statement on Monday.
Qwen was designed to meet both professional and personal user needs. Its capabilities include deep research, image generation, and slide generation.
The Qwen app’s early traction burnished its credentials for a broader audience. Alibaba Cloud signalled it would directly compete with ChatGPT to become the "everything app" for global consumers with an international version release.
Qwen was made available on Apple’s iOS and Android platforms. Alibaba Cloud stated Qwen was expected to integrate core lifestyle and productivity functions.
These functions include maps, food delivery, travel bookings, office tools, e-commerce, education, and health-related services, as it develops into a multipurpose super app. Future iterations of the app are expected to arrive very rapidly, according to a Post report that cited Poe Zhao, a Beijing-based tech analyst and founder of the Hello China Tech newsletter.
Qwen’s strong performance followed the debut of Ant Group’s new "vibe coding" AI app, LingGuang. LingGuang achieved approximately 2 million downloads, securing the top spot in the free tool category of Apple’s China App Store.
Ant Group is Alibaba’s fintech affiliate. "Vibe coding," which allows non-programmers to create custom software apps, has become one of the most popular applications of generative AI globally.
Ant Group increased its AI push this year. This push included upgrading its Bailing large language model, rolling out AI-powered healthcare products, and unveiling the R1 humanoid by its robotics unit, Ant Lingbo Technology, also known as Robbyant.
Alibaba's Qwen chatbot recorded over 10 million downloads in its first week, surpassing ChatGPT and DeepSeek.
Qwen represents Alibaba's significant entry into the consumer AI market, with capabilities like deep research and image generation.
Alibaba Cloud plans for Qwen to become a global "everything app" by integrating various lifestyle and productivity functions.
Source: SCMP