China’s AI Chatbot Boom

The original story by John Ruwitch for NPR.

China’s AI chatbots are getting smarter. That part’s not in doubt.

The harder problem? Getting people to actually use them.

Ask Li Hao, a 19-year-old delivery driver. He’s a regular on Doubao, the chatbot built by ByteDance. But during the Lunar New Year, he gave Qwen a shot – mainly because Alibaba was handing out free milk tea if you ordered through it.

He got the drink. Then he went straight back to his usual app.

That’s the chatbot war in China right now: flashy tech, aggressive giveaways, and a scramble to turn curiosity into habit.

Unlike US AI firms, which tend to hype model performance, Chinese tech giants are playing a different game. They want their chatbots woven into everyday life – ordering food, booking travel, paying bills.

And they’re spending big to make that happen.

Alibaba alone poured more than $400 million into Lunar New Year promotions. Tencent and Baidu joined in with coupons, cash-style giveaways, and discounts. Altogether, top apps burned through over $1 billion during the holiday push.

The strategy isn’t subtle. Give users a reason to try the app – anything from free drinks to discounts – and hope they stick around.

It’s a familiar playbook. A decade ago, Alibaba and Tencent fought a similar battle over mobile payments, flooding users with incentives. That fight helped turn China into one of the most advanced digital commerce markets in the world.

Now, the same tactics are being deployed again. Only this time, the battleground is AI.

The pitch is simple: don’t just chat – get things done.

With Qwen, you can type “I want milk tea,” and the app will pull up nearby options instantly. Choose a drink, tweak your order, and pay – all inside the chatbot. No switching apps. No extra steps.

Because it’s tied into Alipay, it already knows your location and payment details. One tap, and the order is on its way.

Other players are taking similar approaches. Doubao lives inside Douyin, where it behaves like a chat contact. Tencent’s Yuanbao chatbot sits inside WeChat, plugged directly into payments and messaging.

The idea is to turn AI into the front door for everything – shopping, services, even real-world tasks.

The competition isn’t just between the big names.

Startups like Moonshot AI and DeepSeek are also pushing into the space, with models that have surprised analysts with how quickly they’ve improved.

Still, the heavyweights dominate distribution. They already own the apps people use daily. Now they’re trying to slot AI into those habits.

The giveaways worked – at least for a moment.

Qwen reportedly hit over 70 million daily users at the peak of the holiday frenzy. Doubao surged even higher, crossing 140 million after promotions tied to the national TV gala.

Then the spike faded.

Usage dropped once the freebies stopped, raising a tougher question: can these apps hold attention without incentives?

For now, loyalty looks fragile. Users hop in, grab the deal, and move on.

Li Hao’s story isn’t unusual. He tried Qwen, enjoyed the freebie, and went back to Doubao without much thought.

Chinese companies have shown they can build powerful AI tools. They’ve also shown they can attract massive crowds – if they’re willing to pay for it.

What’s less clear is whether those crowds will stay.

Because once the coupons run out and the novelty wears off, chatbots have to prove something harder: that they’re worth coming back to, even when there’s no free milk tea waiting.