At a critical moment, Jack Ma appeared at Alibaba Qianwen Workshop

On the evening of February 4th, a netizen claiming to be an “Alibaba employee” posted on social media that they saw Jack Ma at the Qianwen team office area in Zone C of Alibaba’s Xixi Park in Hangzhou.

The circulated images show Jack Ma accompanied by Alibaba partner Shao Xiaofeng arriving at the Qianwen office area. Next to the office, there is a New Year display featuring elements of the Year of the Horse, labeled “Qianwen C-End Business Group.”

As the Spring Festival approaches, the major internet companies’ “AI Battle” for the holiday season continues to heat up. Tencent’s Yuanbao, Baidu’s Wenxin, and ByteDance’s Doubao have all launched Spring Festival red envelope campaigns. As a company with extensive ecosystem access, Alibaba is naturally taking strong action.

On February 2nd, the Qianwen app announced a 3 billion yuan “Spring Festival Hosting Plan,” setting a new record for Alibaba’s annual Spring Festival campaign investment and marking the highest amount in this year’s AI Spring Festival battle. On February 3rd, the Qianwen app announced it would exclusively sponsor the Year of the Horse Spring Festival galas on four major TV stations and participate deeply in the performances through AI.

The Spring Festival of the Year of the Horse is seen as a key moment for AI applications to rapidly seize the C-end market. Now, with Jack Ma appearing at the Qianwen work area, it demonstrates Alibaba’s emphasis on the “AI Battle” during the Spring Festival.

Qianwen’s “Spring Festival Hosting Plan” invites the entire nation to enjoy food, entertainment, and leisure during the holiday in a free-of-charge manner, experiencing a new lifestyle brought by the AI era. Alibaba’s ecosystem services such as Taobao Flash Sale, Fliggy, Damai, Hema, Tmall Supermarket, and Alipay will also join the Qianwen Spring Festival offensive. An internal source from Qianwen revealed: “Most AI assistants on the market are still at the chat stage, but Qianwen aims to integrate into people’s real-life consumption during this Spring Festival.”

Qianwen is expected to cultivate the habit of “seeking AI help when needed” through real monetary investment. Users will no longer need to switch repeatedly between multiple apps; instead, they can simply express their intentions to AI to complete the entire process from decision-making to fulfillment, bringing a new consumer experience in the AI era and fully igniting AI shopping.

In addition to exclusively sponsoring the Spring Festivals of Dongfang TV, Zhejiang TV, Jiangsu TV, and Henan TV, Qianwen will bring AI creation capabilities such as AI-generated videos, AI image recognition, and AI Q&A into the programs and interactive segments of the galas. During the broadcast of these four galas, Qianwen will also distribute exclusive command red envelopes, allowing viewers to watch the Spring Festival Gala and grab red envelopes within the app.

The 2025 Spring Festival will be the “DeepThink” moment for “DeepSeek” to go viral; the 2026 Spring Festival will be the Qianwen moment for the “AI Life Agent” to go viral.