Another tech giant has joined the Spring Festival red packet battle. On February 2nd, it was learned that the Qianwen App announced an investment of 3 billion yuan to launch a Spring Festival offensive, with full integration into Alibaba's ecosystem businesses including Taobao Quick Purchase, Damai, Fliggy, and Freshippo. This initiative is scheduled to go live on February 6th. Sources close to Alibaba indicated that this Spring Festival strategy "remains centered on using AI to help people get things done."
It's not just Alibaba; Tencent, Baidu, and ByteDance have all entered this Spring Festival AI marketing contest. On January 25th, Tencent announced a New Year event starting February 1st, where users can share 1 billion yuan in cash red packets on the Yuanbao App, with individual red packets potentially reaching 10,000 yuan. Tencent's Chairman Ma Huateng explicitly stated, "We hope to recreate the spectacular scene of the WeChat red packets from back in the day." On the Apple App Store's free app ranking chart, Yuanbao has rapidly surpassed ByteDance's Doubao to claim the top spot.
Perhaps due to the event's overwhelming popularity, rumors emerged on February 2nd suggesting that "Yuanbao crashed." Regarding this, inquiries were made to Tencent, and the company responded that the cause was a sudden surge in traffic, leading to brief instability in some services, which were "quickly restored."
On January 25th, Baidu also announced that from January 26th to March 12th, users using the Wenxin Assistant within the Baidu App would have the opportunity to share 500 million yuan in cash red packets, with maximum rewards reaching 10,000 yuan. Furthermore, Baidu App will serve as the Chief AI Partner for the 2026 Beijing Radio and Television Spring Festival Gala, launching nearly a hundred Spring Festival activities including card collection, AI couplets, and photo generation.
ByteDance has secured a partnership with the CCTV Spring Festival Gala. Its subsidiary, Volcano Engine, became the exclusive AI cloud partner for the 2026 Gala, and its intelligent assistant Doubao will also launch various interactive activities in coordination. From payment platforms to short video platforms, over the past decade, almost every wave of internet traffic restructuring has been accompanied by Spring Festival red packet wars. Regarding the current AI marketing battle, the industry widely believes it has transcended a simple "spending money for traffic" marketing game. Instead, it is a strategic positioning battle with AI as the core engine, fighting for the next generation's super traffic portal. Whoever seizes the traffic gateway in the AI era will hold the power of data discourse, transforming AI capabilities into a sustainable profit engine and industry pricing power.
China Securities (CSC) believes that future AI assistants and general-purpose Agents will possess stronger performance and richer functionalities, potentially aggregating more vertical application platforms. Each user might only need a few AI assistants or general-purpose Agents to fulfill all online needs, potentially disrupting the traffic portal landscape of the internet era. Seizing the AI era's traffic gateway is a critical step for maintaining or strengthening one's market position in the AI age.
Goldman Sachs pointed out in a research report that 2026 will be a key strategic inflection point for Chinese internet giants. This is because AI investment in the consumer-facing (To-C) sector will gradually increase, competition to build AI super-portals will intensify, and major players will more resolutely defend their core leading positions. (Disclaimer: The article content is for reference only and does not constitute investment advice. Investors proceed at their own risk.)
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