DouBao's direct access to the Spring Festival Gala, Qwen’s 3 billion yuan in freebies, and Yuanbao’s 1 billion yuan in red packets have made the AI battle during the Spring Festival extremely intense! This campaign not only overwhelmed servers and boosted beverage stocks but also triggered a blockade within the WeChat ecosystem.
Goldman Sachs predicts that by 2026, China's tech giants will spend over $600 billion on AI. Behind the massive spending, a life-or-death competition for the 'AI super entrance' has fully erupted.
This Spring Festival, the intensity of the AI battle was stronger than the scent of firecrackers.
On February 10, DouBao, ByteDance's large model, officially announced that it would give away more than 100,000 tech gifts and cash red packets worth up to 8,888 yuan through CCTV's Spring Festival Gala on New Year's Eve. With this announcement, following$TENCENT (00700.HK)$Yuanbao’s 1 billion yuan in red packets and$BABA-W (09988.HK)$Qwen’s 3 billion yuan in freebies, DouBao officially joined this large-scale Spring Festival marketing battle.
DouBao: Aiming directly for the grandest stage of the Spring Festival Gala
Unlike other AI applications opting for social fission strategies, DouBao is targeting the top-tier traffic entry point represented by the CCTV Spring Festival Gala.
The lineup of prizes is nothing short of luxurious: Unitree robots, Songling Power robots, Magic Atom robotic dogs, Bambu Lab 3D printers, DJI drones, and other cutting-edge tech products, as well as smart consumer goods such as Xiaomi smartwatches and Supor rice cookers. There are even opportunities to win the usage rights of two electric vehicles: the SAIC Audi E5 Sportback and the Mercedes-Benz CLA.
More notably, the official statement from DouBao emphasized that all tech gifts have been integrated with the DouBao large model. Taking the Unitree robot as an example, it utilizes the large language model, speech synthesis model, and visual understanding capabilities from the DouBao family of models, enabling more human-like tones and intonations, as well as smooth voice interactions.
Currently, the “DouBao Celebrates the New Year” event has gone live on the DouBao App. As a consumer-grade AI application with daily active users exceeding 100 million in China, DouBao’s collaboration with the Spring Festival Gala will undoubtedly further expand its user base.
Qwen: 3 billion yuan in freebies triggers 'server earthquake'
If DouBao’s approach can be described as steady and methodical, then Qwen’s strategy is 'simple and direct'.
At noon on February 6,$BABA-W (09988.HK)$after its AI app Qwen launched the "3 billion yuan in Spring Festival freebies" campaign, it quickly topped Apple's App Store free apps chart, surpassing ByteDance's DouBao and Tencent's Yuanbao.
The campaign mechanism is highly enticing: users who update the app receive a no-threshold voucher worth 25 yuan, which can be used to purchase milk tea, New Year goods, or order food delivery via Taobao Flash Purchase. For every new user invited, both parties receive a 25-yuan voucher, with a maximum of 21 vouchers available per person.
The effects were immediate but also brought unexpected 'sweet烦恼'.
Less than three hours after the launch of the campaign, more than one million milk tea orders were given away. However, the massive influx of users directly overwhelmed the servers, causing the campaign page to display a message stating, 'The event is too popular, please try again later.' The Qwen team urgently responded on social media, stating that they are increasing resources to ensure smooth service.
This marketing storm also produced interesting chain reactions: most Hong Kong-listed tea beverage stocks rose on the day, with Guming surging over 5% to hit a new all-time high since its listing, Cha Bai Dao rising over 4%, and Hu Shang Ayi and Mixue Group following suit with gains.
However, the capital markets maintained a rational calmness. Despite the enthusiastic response to the campaign, Alibaba’s stock price fell by 3% on the same day. Investors remained cautious about the business model of acquiring users through high subsidies in AI applications, with the market focusing more on long-term profitability rather than short-term spikes in downloads.
WeChat Takes Action: Ecosystem Blockade Intensifies Competitive Barriers
While various AI applications were fiercely competing in red packet battles, WeChat, the largest social traffic pool, erected a 'firewall'.
Qwen became the third AI application whose Spring Festival marketing activities were blocked by WeChat. WeChat displayed that its links "contain content that induces or misleads downloads/redirects," requiring redirection to a third-party browser for access. Some users found that sharing the event within the Qwen APP to WeChat contacts had automatically switched to a code-copying format.
Previously, on February 4, the official WeChat account 'WeChat Team' issued an announcement stating that Yuanbao's Spring Festival marketing campaign induced frequent sharing of links through tasks like 'completing missions' and 'receiving red packets', disrupting the platform’s ecological order. As a result, WeChat restricted its non-compliant links. The PR director of WeChat stated, 'User experience comes first; we treat everyone equally.'
On February 5, Baidu Wenxin Assistant’s red packet sharing link was also blocked by WeChat, prompting Baidu to switch to a 'command red packet' format.
WeChat’s unified blockade demonstrated its zero-tolerance policy towards third-party apps leveraging social networks for viral marketing. However, this move gave Tencent’s own app, Yuanbao, a unique competitive advantage.
The year of strategic inflection has arrived.
Behind the seemingly bustling red envelope battles lies a profound strategic turning point faced by China's internet giants.
Goldman Sachs noted in its latest research report that 2026 will be a 'dual-track year' for China's internet giants to increase AI investment and defend their core market positions. ByteDance's breakthroughs in AI, e-commerce, and local services are forcing$BABA-W (09988.HK)$、$TENCENT (00700.HK)$other giants to initiate comprehensive strategic shifts.
Data shows that as the profit leader among Chinese internet companies with an expected profit of $50 billion in 2025, ByteDance's multi-faceted breakthroughs have directly rewritten industry competition rules. DouBao APP boasts over 100 million daily active users, with daily token consumption reaching 50 trillion, ranking third globally; TikTok's e-commerce GMV grew by more than 30% year-over-year, and is projected to surpass PDD Holdings by 2026.
Facing ByteDance’s aggressive expansion, strategic pivots by the major players are inevitable. Goldman Sachs estimates that combined AI capital expenditures by ByteDance, Alibaba, and Tencent in 2026 will exceed $60 billion (approximately RMB 410 billion), focusing on To-C AI super entrances and full-stack technologies.
Goldman Sachs emphasized that by 2026, investment in China’s internet sector will move away from a 'universal growth logic' to an 'alpha era' centered on stock-picking, revolving around three themes: profit growth, AI and globalization narratives, and shareholder returns.
This Spring Festival's AI-powered red envelope battle is merely the opening act of a long-term campaign. Red envelopes address user acquisition, but the real test lies in the products themselves. Who will emerge victorious in the contest for AI super entrance dominance remains to be seen.
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Editor/Melody
