On October 20, Alipay released a statement regarding the suspension of AQ advertisements on its homepage, seemingly addressing rumors of internal conflict within the company concerning its product AQ.

The statement indicated that after careful consideration, it was decided to halt the advertising for the AI Health Assistant AQ on the Alipay homepage starting this week, with the specific time for resumption to be announced later.

Regarding the reasons for the suspension, Alipay cited two main points. Firstly, there was a significant deviation between the advertising creativity and user understanding. AQ had been running advertisements on the Alipay homepage for nearly a month through a "guess the question based on the picture" format. Although the intention was to educate users about chronic diseases and health knowledge, the execution overly relied on homophones (such as "clothes + rain" corresponding to "depression", and "helicopter + house + cookie" corresponding to "fatty liver") and abstract images (like "heart + red light" corresponding to "myocardial infarction"), resulting in extensive user feedback stating that the ads were "unintelligible," with even some users complaining, "My grandma wanted to hit someone after watching it," affecting Alipay's public image as a national app.

Secondly, AQ's attitude towards feedback was poor. After receiving comments from brother brands under the company like Huabei, Ant Insurance, Sesame Credit, and Ant Forest expressing that "the ads are terrible," AQ set up a group named "Sorry Brothers." However, after sending an emoji package featuring "10 elderly and 1 child," the group was promptly exited, leading netizens to interpret that as a way of saying they were just a group of old people bullying one child.

Alipay stated that this advertising suspension is based on the baseline of user experience and is completely unrelated to the rumors of a "succession war." Alipay is neither interested nor willing to get involved because it is unnecessary. The company continues to encourage AQ to explore innovative formats for health education to reach the public in a more accessible way.

According to the official introduction of the AQ app, AQ is a new AI health application launched by Ant Group on June 26, 2025, positioned as a health manager for the general public, offering various health consultations, image interpretations, appointment scheduling, and cloud consultation services.

On September 22, AQ launched an "emoji health guessing game" on the Alipay homepage, updating every Monday and Tuesday, allowing users to guess a disease through combinations of emojis. The activity quickly gained popularity, and AQ hoped to extend its advertisement placement on Alipay's homepage for another six months. However, Alipay found the advertising creativity lacking. Subsequently, other business lines like Ant Credit, Ant Insurance, Huabei, and Ant Forest joined in the criticism, replying through their official accounts that if AQ’s creative was featured on the homepage, their brands could also be featured. Other Alibaba ecosystem brands like Ele.me, Cainiao, Xianyu, and Alibaba Travel also joined in with their own criticisms.

This incident has been humorously dubbed by many online observers as the "Alipay Succession War."

Public data indicates that Ant Group originated from Alipay, established in 2004. In March 2013, Alipay's parent company, Alibaba Group, announced that it would establish a microfinance service group centered around Alipay, which later became Ant Financial. In July 2020, Ant Financial officially rebranded itself as Ant Group. Currently, Alibaba Group, through its wholly-owned subsidiary Hangzhou Alibaba, holds about 33% of Ant Group shares, making it one of its major shareholders.

Furthermore, Alibaba's e-commerce platforms (such as Taobao and Tmall) closely collaborate with Ant Group’s Alipay in payment processes, with Alipay providing payment settlement services for Alibaba’s e-commerce transactions. Additionally, Ant Group has expanded financial services such as wealth management, credit, and insurance based on Alipay, complementing Alibaba's business.

On October 17, Alibaba Group and Ant Group jointly announced that they had signed an agreement to invest $925 million (approximately HKD 7.2 billion) in the purchase of a total of 13 floors of office space at One Island East in Hong Kong, to serve as headquarters for both companies in the region.

On August 29, Alibaba Group released its Q1 fiscal report for 2026 (which corresponds to the second quarter of the natural year 2025). The quarter saw revenues of ¥247.652 billion, with a year-on-year growth of 10% when excluding impacts from divested businesses. During the reporting period, net profit was ¥42.382 billion, a year-on-year increase of 76%, exceeding market expectations.