Some 100,000 monthly subscriptions to QwenWork, the artificial intelligence assistant of Chinese giant Alibaba, sold in just 30 minutes during an online teleshopping broadcast. The operation aimed to sell 100,000 one-month subscriptions at a derisory price: 1 Chinese cent, or a tenth of a euro cent, versus 4 euros usually.
China already has more than 700 million generative AI users, more than half the country.
To recoup their massive investments, tech giants now want to make AI an everyday service.
Nearly seven in ten Chinese say they are ready to trust artificial intelligence.
QwenWork fits this strategy: an assistant presented as an office and everyday-life tool, sold as a mass-market consumer product.
Teleshopping made it possible to reach in half an hour the volume target set for the one-month subscription.