Mei Ri Jing Ji Xin Wen·2026-01-28 04:58Core Insights - The Chinese New Year presents a significant opportunity for major tech companies to create "national-level products" through innovative marketing strategies and user engagement initiatives [1][14] - Four major AI companies—Tencent, Baidu, ByteDance, and Alibaba—are launching various interactive features and cash red envelope campaigns to attract users during the festive season [1][2] Group 1: Company Strategies - Tencent plans to distribute 1 billion cash red envelopes starting February 1, with individual amounts reaching up to 10,000 yuan, aiming to replicate the success of WeChat's previous red envelope campaigns [1] - Baidu is offering a total of 500 million yuan in cash red envelopes through its app, with a maximum reward of 10,000 yuan, and will collaborate with the 2026 Beijing Spring Festival Gala [2] - ByteDance's Volcano Engine will serve as the exclusive AI cloud partner for the 2026 Spring Festival Gala, while its smart assistant Doubao will introduce various interactive features [2] - Alibaba's Qianwen app has already secured exclusive naming rights for the 2025 Bilibili New Year's Eve Gala, which achieved a peak viewership of over 350 million [2] Group 2: User Engagement and Growth Metrics - By 2025, Doubao's monthly active users (MAU) are projected to double to 226 million, while Qianwen is expected to see a significant increase in user engagement [1][3] - The total MAU for the top five AI applications in China remained stagnant for the first three quarters of 2025, with a slight increase in Q4 due to the efforts of Ant Group's Aifu and Qianwen [3] - Doubao's MAU surged by 126 million in 2025, while DeepSeek experienced a decline of approximately 51 million users over the same period [8] Group 3: Market Dynamics and Competition - The competition among the four AI giants during the Chinese New Year is seen as a battle for user acquisition rather than just a marketing campaign, with a focus on enhancing AI capabilities [14] - The effectiveness of traditional marketing strategies, such as cash red envelope campaigns, may be diminished in the AI era due to increased competition and advertising saturation [14] - The overall user engagement and retention will depend on the core capabilities of AI products rather than just traffic generation, indicating a shift in competitive dynamics [14]