This year marks Alibaba's third major strategic push.

In the tech industry's AI race, Alibaba has resembled U.S. giants like Amazon and Microsoft—lacking mass consumer traffic funnels like WeChat or Douyin, its AI investments have leaned toward enterprise clients, building computing power centers and leveraging cloud services to meet industry-wide AI demand.

Alibaba's recent AI milestones have largely bypassed the application layer—investing in top Chinese AI startups, developing the Qwen series of open-source models that outperform competitors in benchmarks, and accelerating Alibaba Cloud's growth. However, the public beta launch of its AI assistant "Qwen App" on November 17 signals a broader ambition.

The new Qwen App directly targets ChatGPT's latest 5.1 version. It evolved from Alibaba's Tongyi app and Quark's AI chat assistant, now powered by the upgraded Qwen 3-Max model from Alibaba's Tongyi Lab.

This is Alibaba's third major strategic project this year, following AI infrastructure and Taobao's flash sales, led by Wu Jia, president of Alibaba's Intelligent Information Business Group. Since September, over 100 engineers have been working intensively at Alibaba's Xixi Campus—similar to the development approach used for AutoNavi's "Street Sweep" feature.

The initial version of Qwen is now live, with significant updates planned. Beyond conversational AI, the Qwen team is collaborating with Taobao, AutoNavi, flash sales, and Alipay to integrate deeper into these platforms, solving real user problems.

An Alibaba insider noted, "Alibaba has strong foundational models and needs a dominant consumer-facing entry point. Qwen will be the focus of our AI super-app strategy."

Unlike Amazon or Microsoft, Chinese internet giants can't afford to let third-party AIs like ChatGPT or Gemini dominate their ecosystems. ByteDance's Doubao, for instance, spans productivity tools and e-commerce. Every major player must secure its own traffic gateway—whether Pinduoduo adding short videos or Alibaba entering food delivery. AI chat assistants are currently the most visible entry point.

We spoke with Qwen's product managers and other Alibaba insiders about the app's delayed launch and future strategy. Below are their responses, edited for clarity without altering intent.

**Why launch Qwen now, nearly a year after DeepSeek's rise?** Qwen Team: Alibaba needed a robust consumer-facing AI product. Every major firm is tackling this, but paths differ based on business structure and capabilities. Ours started with cloud and base models—model strength was the priority before shifting to consumers.

Timing was key: 1. Qwen3-Max now delivers globally competitive performance. 2. The agent ecosystem—both third-party and internal—has matured enough for broader model integration and problem-solving. We've also spent months enabling cross-business data sharing and authorization.

**Is Alibaba late to the AI super-app race?** Qwen Team: No. Two reasons: 1. No Chinese AI app has sustainably surpassed 100M DAU—the threshold for a "national-level" product. 2. Current offerings remain rudimentary, still evolving toward solving real-world problems. Progress hinges not just on data but breakthroughs in autonomous learning and world modeling.

**How does Qwen differ from ChatGPT?** Qwen Team: 1. It’s free and accessible to all—monetization isn’t a focus. 2. Beyond matching ChatGPT’s features, we’re integrating Alibaba’s ecosystem (e.g., e-commerce, payments) more deeply. China’s walled-garden internet makes this both a challenge and necessity.

**What’s Qwen’s ultimate goal?** Qwen Team: To be a problem-solving tool—not just chatting or photo editing, but addressing work, study, and daily life needs at scale.

Phase one focuses on user experience and rapid iteration. Phase two involves synergizing with Alibaba’s businesses (AutoNavi, Taobao, etc.), with major updates coming soon.

**Who drove Qwen’s development?** Qwen Team: Preparations began earlier, but strategic decisions crystallized in mid-2025. CEO Eddie Wu ultimately greenlit it as Alibaba’s flagship AI consumer product. Over 100 engineers were mobilized for a closed-door sprint at Xixi Campus.

**How does Qwen fit Alibaba’s consumer AI strategy?** Qwen Team: It’s one pillar—alongside AI upgrades for Quark, Taobao, and others. Quark remains an AI search/browser, while Qwen becomes the conversational centerpiece.

Alibaba’s recent reorganization—pooling resources across units like flash sales—reflects this integrated approach.

*Data context*: - Doubao leads Chinese AI apps with 54.1M DAU (Oct 2025), per QuestMobile. Qwen’s Quark reports 50-60M DAU (unverified by third parties). - ChatGPT boasts ~200M global DAU, per OpenAI.

The race for China’s first 100M-DAU AI app is on—Alibaba bets Qwen can cross that line by 2026.