Quick overview

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Alibaba’s Qwen app received over 10 million downloads in the week following its relaunch. Qwen’s launch demonstrates how artificial intelligence apps have recently achieved unprecedented levels of rapid adoption. Alibaba intends to thoroughly incorporate essential productivity and lifestyle services into the Qwen App.

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. In the week following its relaunch, the Qwen app received over 10 million downloads, which is encouraging for a longer-term endeavor to create a competitor to OpenAI’s ChatGPT.

The Chinese e-commerce giant’s shares increased more than 5% on Monday in Hong Kong, following Alibaba’s disclosure of the figure in a WeChat blog post.

This quick uptick comes after Alibaba decided to rename and update its existing iOS and Android apps this month to unify the services under the Qwen brand. Qwen’s launch highlights how artificial intelligence apps have recently set new benchmarks for rapid adoption, with OpenAI’s ChatGPT being the fastest to reach 100 million users three years ago,

The initial Qwen user numbers followed an announcement by Ant Group Co., an Alibaba fintech affiliate, made over the weekend. Last week, the company unveiled LingGuang, a multimodal AI assistant.

LingGuang has been downloaded over a million times. To make Qwen a fully functional AI agent, Alibaba will progressively add agentic AI features to support online shopping across platforms, including its well-known Taobao marketplace, in the coming months.

The company has rebranded itself as an AI-first enterprise under CEO Eddie Wu, a move that will be reevaluated when Alibaba answers investor inquiries following its Tuesday quarterly results. According to a statement from the company, “Alibaba plans to deeply integrate core lifestyle and productivity services – including digital maps, food delivery, travel booking, office tools, e-commerce, education, and health guidance – directly into the Qwen App