Overview
- Alibaba plans to update its Tongyi mobile apps on iOS and Android in the coming months and rename them Qwen, according to people familiar with the matter.
- Reporting indicates the revamped app will add staged agentic-AI tools that help users shop on Taobao and other e-commerce platforms, with the long-term goal of a fully functioning AI agent.
- The service is expected to stay free initially to build scale before introducing paid consumer offerings, reflecting a shift toward monetizing individual users.
- More than 100 developers have been assigned to the overhaul and Alibaba intends to streamline its consumer AI under the Qwen banner, while keeping the Quark app available.
- Alibaba trails Tencent and ByteDance in consumer AI usage, and the product push comes as ARK Invest bought $26.2 million of Alibaba shares on Nov. 11 during a stock decline.