Tencent recently issued an official notice regarding a Spring Festival cash giveaway of 1 billion yuan, announcing the launch of a red packet campaign on its Yuanbao APP starting February 1st, where users can participate in sharing 1 billion yuan in cash, with individual red packets potentially reaching up to 10,000 yuan. Concurrently, Baidu announced on January 25th that from January 26th to March 12th, users searching for "Spring Festival red packets" on the Baidu APP will have the opportunity to share a 500 million yuan cash pool, with a maximum single red packet of 10,000 yuan.
Industry insiders believe that Spring Festival marketing holds critical significance for competition in the AI market. As a period of exceptionally high user activity, campaigns like cash red packets can swiftly attract user attention and participation, helping to boost the market exposure and user base of AI products. This facilitates rapid brand penetration, drives the transformation of products from mere tools into user habits, and lays the groundwork for subsequent market breakthroughs.
Major tech giants are significantly ramping up their AI deployments during the Spring Festival season. Why has Tencent's entry sparked such market fervor this time? During the 2015 Spring Festival Gala, Tencent distributed 500 million yuan in cash red packets via WeChat's "Shake" feature, achieving a crucial breakthrough for WeChat Pay. Now, Tencent is making a rare move to distribute a massive 10 billion yuan in cash red packets; it remains to be seen whether it can once again leverage this super social scenario to accelerate its AI ambitions. Notably, behind the 10 billion yuan campaign, Tencent is continuously strengthening its AI layout.
Angel investor and senior AI expert Guo Tao believes Spring Festival marketing is strategically significant for AI market competition, with the core objectives being the precise capture of the "national-level traffic window" and the "user education opportunity." Guo Tao explained that during the Spring Festival, average daily user screen time increases by 40%, and public attention is highly concentrated. Activities like Tencent Yuanbao's 10 billion yuan red packet campaign can achieve widespread penetration for AI applications at the lowest cost, breaking through the user limitations of being a "techie exclusive" to cover demographics like seniors and office workers.
Guo Tao views this Spring Festival activity as part of the comprehensive upgrade of the Yuanbao APP, backed by clear logic and practical support. From a design perspective, users must update to version 2.55.0 or higher to participate, effectively mandating functional iteration and promotion, thereby paving the way for subsequent AI feature rollouts—a stark contrast to previously low upgrade frequencies. Having already integrated the DeepSeek model into Yuanbao, Tencent's 10 billion yuan investment is essentially "strategic tuition," aimed at using traffic incentives to guide users to experience core AI functions and convert them from bargain-seekers into loyal users.
"Launching marketing campaigns during the Spring Festival is highly significant for AI market competition," said Zhang Xinyuan, head of the consulting firm Kefangde. He believes this is not merely a market tactic but also reflects the accelerating penetration of AI applications into consumer-grade scenarios, shifting competition from technological储备 to user acquisition and experience optimization.
"2026 is a critical year for the battle over AI gateways; Tencent cannot afford to let Yuanbao remain in a state of slow iteration. This activity serves both user acquisition and as a stress test for technology and scenarios," Guo Tao argued. He posits that massive user interaction data will feedback into model optimization, accumulating a foundation for upgrading AI functions in subsequent office, social, and other scenarios. From an investment viewpoint, this marks Yuanbao's transition from a "lightweight application" to a "comprehensive AI assistant," representing a key move in Tencent's broader AI ecosystem strategy.
The red packet battle during the Spring Festival season has intensified the competition for AI traffic gateways. The Spring Festival, being one of the most crucial annual marketing windows, has seen Tencent take the lead, effectively kicking off the AI competition for this season.
Simultaneously, parallel deployments by companies like Baidu and ByteDance are pressuring the industry to shift from a "parameter race" to "scenario implementation," propelling AI competition into a new phase of "value verification" and accelerating the industry's commercialization process.
The battle for AI traffic gateways has entered an "ecosystem" phase, characterized by a landscape of "dominance by giants + differentiated breakthroughs." The core focus of competition is shifting from "user time" to the "point of initial interaction."
Currently, ByteDance's Doubao, Alibaba's Tongyi Qianwen, and Tencent's Yuanbao form the leading tier. ByteDance has gained first-mover advantage through "rapid iteration + integration of software and hardware," with Doubao surpassing 100 million daily active users and being integrated into the Douyin ecosystem. Alibaba's Tongyi Qianwen focuses on creating "task completion loops," connecting e-commerce and local life services scenarios. Tencent's Yuanbao leverages the WeChat ecosystem to explore an intelligent agent gateway combining "social + office" functions. The dimension of competition has escalated from individual product comparisons to a comprehensive contest involving "models + traffic + ecosystem + data," exhibiting a parallel trend of "positional warfare + protracted warfare"—where national-level scenarios like the Spring Festival Gala represent positional battles, and daily functional iterations represent the protracted war.
"The Spring Festival red packet battle of 2026 might just be the prologue to this transformation," suggested Yuan Shuai, Deputy Secretary-General of the Zhongguancun IoT Industry Alliance. He believes the current "battle for AI traffic gateways" has reached a deadlock reminiscent of a "three-kingdom struggle," with the competitive dimension elevated to a contest over "ecosystem closure." "The ultimate outcome of this 'competition' tends towards a 'winner-takes-all' scenario. Once users become accustomed to using a single AI gateway to fulfill all their needs—shopping, entertainment, search, etc.—other apps risk being 'relegated' or even becoming 'invisible.' The logic of traffic distribution will shift from 'people searching for information' to 'AI generating information.'"
Scene innovation and user experience are poised for transformation. Industry observers note that consumer-facing AI applications are currently in their early explosive growth phase, with new innovative scenarios and functions continuously emerging. Empowered by generative AI, the concept of "Agents" is gradually taking shape, bringing us closer to an automated, intelligent era of "what you think is what you get."
Zhang Xinyuan anticipates the launch of more consumer AI innovation applications in the future, particularly in personalized services, real-time interaction, and the deepening of vertical scenarios. He looks forward to AI further lowering the usage barrier, achieving more natural cross-scenario integration, while also emphasizing the need for concurrent development in data privacy and ethical standards to promote both technological inclusivity and responsible innovation.
Wang Peng, Associate Researcher at the Beijing Academy of Social Sciences, believes leading products will leverage their traffic advantages to widen their lead, while mid-tier products need breakthroughs through differentiated marketing and functional innovation. "More consumer AI innovation applications will emerge, becoming more integrated into daily life scenarios and achieving deep penetration of intelligent services. Breakthroughs are expected in interactive experience, personalized service, and ecosystem integration, evolving from single-purpose tools into life assistants."
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