Overview
- Qwen is now live on iOS, Android and the web as a free, multipurpose assistant built on Alibaba Cloud’s Qwen model family for chat, research, mapping, shopping and productivity.
- Launch-day traffic produced service delays and functional hiccups, prompting an apology from Alibaba as reporters also logged errors and slowdowns during hands-on tests.
- In informal testing, the bot delivered state-aligned answers on sensitive topics and threw an error when asked about the 1989 Tiananmen Square events.
- Alibaba Cloud cut access prices for its Qwen3-Max model by roughly 50%, with additional discounts for non-peak batch jobs to spur developer and enterprise use.
- The push marks a shift from Alibaba’s prior enterprise focus and a rebrand of its underperforming Tongyi app, entering a market led by ByteDance’s Doubao while showing early app-store traction in Hong Kong and mainland China.