On August 20, Alibaba's wholesale sourcing platform 1688 announced the launch of "Chengxintong AI Version." The product is scheduled to go live in October 2025 and will become the standard offering for newly registered merchants, with an annual fee of 9,988 yuan.

According to the announcement, the original Chengxintong service will be discontinued after the transition period ends. The transition period runs from October 2025 to March 31, 2026. During this transition period, existing merchants can choose to continue with the original service at the previous annual fee standard, or opt to activate the Chengxintong AI version. Regardless of which option they choose, previously activated services will remain unaffected.

The core objective of Chengxintong AI version is to lower the digital barriers for source manufacturers, enabling those without professional operational capabilities to have fair competitive opportunities on the platform.