ByteDance’s Doubao tops Lunar New Year AI race

ByteDance’s Doubao chatbot surpassed 100 million daily active users on February 16 during China’s nine-day Lunar New Year holiday, overtaking rival apps from Alibaba and Tencent in a costly battle for consumer AI dominance, according to data published on Wednesday.

The figures from AICPB.com, which tracks Chinese AI chatbots, show Doubao’s daily active users were roughly four times higher than in early February. The Spring Festival holiday, which began on February 15 this year, has become a key marketing window for technology groups seeking mass adoption of generative AI products.

AICPB.com said Doubao benefited from a partnership with China Central Television’s Spring Festival Gala, one of the country’s most-watched broadcasts, held on February 16. ByteDance reported that the app handled more than 1.9 billion AI-related queries during the show, reflecting heavy on-screen promotion and integration into gala programming.

Alibaba spent 3 billion yuan to promote its Qwen chatbot through subsidies on purchases such as bubble tea ordered via the app, according to AICPB.com. Qwen’s daily active users peaked at 30 million on New Year’s Eve, up from fewer than 10 million in early February, but still trailed its competitors.

Tencent allocated 1 billion yuan in coupons to drive adoption of its Yuanbao chatbot, AICPB.com reported. Yuanbao’s daily active users rose from about 20 million in early February to a peak of 50 million on February 16.

AICPB.com said that all three apps experienced declines after the holiday surge, with Yuanbao recording the sharpest drop once incentives ended, while Qwen maintained 22 million users by February 21. “Doubao gained the most visibility through the Spring Festival Gala, Yuanbao attracted users quickly with cash incentives, but both face user retention challenges after the holiday peak,” AICPB said, adding that “Qwen, however, showed the strongest retention by focusing on practical, everyday use cases.”

AICPB.com’s data showed that users placed nearly 200 million orders for goods including eggs and flight tickets via Qwen during the holiday period, following Alibaba’s introduction of AI agent functions before the festival.