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Qwen

Qwen
Qwen is a multipurpose artificial intelligence consumer app created by Alibaba as a personal AI assistant for professional and personal use, and powered by the Alibaba Cloud software. Its functionality includes research, image generation and slide generation. Alibaba Cloud is the AI and cloud computing unit of Hangzhou-based Alibaba, owner of the South China Morning Post.
More than 10 million free orders were placed within nine hours of the campaign, overwhelming many stores in mainland China. Photo: Handout
Artificial intelligence

Sweet surge: Qwen overtakes Yuanbao after Alibaba’s bubble tea campaign

More than 10 million free orders put Alibaba’s AI app in the spotlight amid a high-stakes battle for Spring Festival attention.

Artificial intelligence

Red packet rumble: will Tencent’s cash giveaway work again in crowded AI market?

Artificial intelligence

Alibaba’s Qwen ramps up AI app race with Spring Festival giveaway blitz

Artificial intelligence

‘Teach our children well’: Jack Ma urges changes to China’s education in AI era

China’s educators must teach students to ask thousands of good questions, rather than give the same correct answer, Ma says.

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Alibaba Group Holding founder Jack Ma speaks to Chinese rural teachers in a video conference call on Monday. Photo: Jack Ma Foundation
Artificial intelligence

China’s Alibaba, Moonshot claim latest AI models challenge OpenAI, Google

Alibaba says Qwen3-Max-Thinking is its ‘best model so far’, while Moonshot calls Kimi K2.5 the world’s most powerful open-source model.

Artificial intelligence

China’s Baidu merges key app businesses to drive consumer AI push

Merger of Wenku and Wangpan into a new AI unit comes as tech firms race to turn their services and apps into the next ‘super app’.

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Artificial intelligence

Baidu launches Ernie 5.0 as firm’s AI assistant users reach 200 million a month

The Beijing-based company’s most advanced AI model can process text, images, audio and video.

A ranking published by LMArena showed Ernie-5.0-0110 came first among Chinese models and eighth globally in text performance. Photo: Shutterstock
Artificial intelligence

Alibaba’s upgraded Qwen chatbot app receives warm consumer reception

Qwen’s upgrade transforms the chatbot into a virtual ‘life assistant’, making lives easier for hundreds of millions of consumers.

Alibaba

Alibaba’s Qwen AI app hits 100 million users as update widens role in daily life

Chinese e-commerce giant deepens integration of its fast-growing app to enable voice-powered shopping, travel and digital tasks.

Artificial intelligence

Alibaba reaffirms open-source AI commitment as it hails successes

‘Building with the community’ is crucial to the success of the Qwen family of large language models, company says.

Leaning into the open-source approach has helped developers build AI applications faster and at lower cost, company says. Photo: Shutterstock
Artificial intelligence

Ant International teams up with Google on use of Universal Commerce Protocol

The endorsement of Google’s open standard comes as companies globally accelerate the integration of AI agents and e-commerce.

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Ant International is endorsing Google’s Universal Commerce Protocol, an open standard that powers agentic commerce. Photo: Handout
Artificial intelligence

Alibaba’s Qwen family hits 700 million downloads to lead open-source AI adoption

Alibaba Cloud’s Qwen family is the world’s most widely used open-source AI system as of January, Hugging Face data shows.

Artificial intelligence

Alibaba’s Amap rolls out AI-powered 3D virtual tours for offline destinations

Flying Street View feature offers virtual tours of restaurants and venues as platform nears 1 billion monthly users.

Artificial intelligence

China takes confident strides to develop more AI innovation in 2026

‘China’s tech innovation is poised for policy-driven growth in 2026, with AI placed at the centre of the country’s economic agenda,’ NYU’s Winston Ma says.

Illustration: Henry Wong
Artificial intelligence

ByteDance, other major Chinese tech firms lead local consumer AI market: report

ByteDance-owned Doubao remains the country’s top consumer AI app, as DeepSeek’s namesake chatbot takes the No 2 spot.

ByteDance’s top-ranked Doubao AI app. Photo: Shutterstock
Alibaba

Alibaba deepens ecosystem with Qwen-Amap tie-up for routes, restaurants and more

The integration marks Alibaba’s first full tie-in for Qwen, as the company pushes for more synergy across its sprawling consumer platforms.

Artificial intelligence

Tencent shakes up AI operations, names recent recruit as chief AI scientist

Vinces Yao Shunyu now serves as chief AI scientist under the CEO’s office, reporting directly to Tencent president Martin Lau.

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Artificial intelligence

China’s Qwen and DeepSeek edge out US AI models in Christian values benchmark

US start-up Gloo’s Flourishing AI Christian benchmark tested how the output of AI models ‘help people flourish’, CEO Pat Gelsinger said.

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The questions in FAI-C were reviewed by a panel of Biblical experts, including theologians, pastors, psychologists and scholars of ethics. Photo: SCMP
Artificial intelligence

Sea change: China narrows AI gap with US 3 years after ChatGPT shock

The turning point came when DeepSeek released its V3 and R1 models, which were on par with OpenAI’s GPT and Meta’s Llama models at the time.

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Artificial intelligence

Meta sees role reversal as it adopts Alibaba’s Qwen to train AI models

Throughout 2023 and 2024, Chinese firms keen to catch up with the US used Meta’s Llama to help them build their own models.

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Artificial intelligence

AI race: Meta reportedly uses Alibaba’s Qwen for its ‘Avocado’ model

Reported move to reinvigorate Meta’s faltering AI effort with new ‘Avocado’ model is another likely win for Chinese AI.

The logo of Meta Platforms is seen outside its headquarters in Menlo Park, California. Photo: TNS
Artificial intelligence

Alibaba creates new unit to push consumer use of its Qwen AI models

Significant organisational change underlines company’s determination to turn the Qwen chatbot into a ‘super app’.

Alibaba has been driving the adoption and commercialisation of the Qwen series over the past two years amid the global AI surge. Photo: Reuters
Artificial intelligence

Chinese open-source models account for 30% of global AI use: report

Producing globally competitive models makes China a close peer of the US in AI development.

US-China tech war

Editorial | China’s low-cost AI is showing up America’s high-cost tech model

The real China threat is in exposing America’s AI myths by showing what can be achieved at much lower costs and with greater efficiency.

Artificial intelligence

Alibaba’s Qwen app becomes the world’s fastest growing AI app as MAUs surge 149%

Just two weeks into its public beta, Qwen has shown explosive growth, underscoring Alibaba’s challenge to global rivals OpenAI and Google.

Qwen recorded the highest growth in monthly active users among AI products globally at 149 per cent. Photo: Reuters
Artificial intelligence

Alibaba Cloud team wins top AI award for breakthrough in model efficiency

The research could help reduce training and inference costs for Alibaba’s next generation Qwen models without sacrificing accuracy.

In this photo illustration, the Qwen logo is displayed on a smartphone with the Alibaba logo in the background. Photo: Shutterstock Images
Tencent

Alibaba bets on ‘everything app’ Qwen to define AI era for global consumers

Qwen has the potential to become super-app, the same way Tencent’s WeChat defined the mobile internet age, analysts say.

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Alibaba

Alibaba’s Qwen app challenges AI subscription models with free access

The new app is designed to be a free-of-charge, comprehensive AI assistant in both professional and personal settings.

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