Will users stick around after China's US$1 billion AI marketing battle?

"In an unprecedented Chinese New Year marketing blitz, Alibaba Group Holding, Baidu, ByteDance and Tencent Holdings spent an estimated 8 billion yuan (US$1.1 billion) to turn their artificial intelligence assistants into household names, according to Morgan Stanley."

"Morgan Stanley said all platforms experienced "traffic normalisation" once the promotions ended, although the extent of the pullback varied."

"Alibaba publicly disclosed a 3 billion yuan headline budget, but Morgan Stanley estimated in a research note on Monday that actual spending may have exceeded 5 billion yuan."

China's major tech companies—Alibaba, Baidu, ByteDance, and Tencent—invested approximately 8 billion yuan in an unprecedented marketing campaign to promote their AI assistants during Chinese New Year through vouchers, red packets, and sponsorships. This aggressive spending aimed to establish these AI tools as mainstream household products. Following the holiday period, early data reveals significant traffic normalization across all platforms as promotional incentives ended. The retention rates and lasting user engagement vary considerably among competitors. Alibaba's actual spending exceeded its publicly disclosed 3 billion yuan budget, reaching an estimated 5 billion yuan according to Morgan Stanley analysis.

Read at South China Morning Post