China's leading technology companies ByteDance and Alibaba Group Holdings Ltd ADR (NYSE:BABA) are lining up new artificial intelligence releases for the Lunar New Year holiday in mid-February, escalating competition in the nation's AI landscape.
According to reporting by The Information, ByteDance intends to introduce three distinct models next month: Doubao 2.0, described as a large language model; Seedream 5.0, an image generation model; and SeedDance 2.0, a video generation model. Those product names and model types were cited by sources with direct knowledge of the plans.
In parallel, The Information reported that Alibaba plans to unveil Qwen 3.5, positioned as its new flagship model and specifically optimized for complex reasoning tasks. The reporting noted that the forthcoming models are expected to demonstrate strong math and coding capabilities.
The choice of launch timing is deliberate. The Lunar New Year holiday typically gives companies a concentrated period of consumer attention - most people in China take a week off and have more screen time for news and entertainment content, creating a larger potential audience for new product rollouts.
ByteDance currently holds an advantage in the consumer-facing AI arena with its Doubao chatbot, which had 163 million monthly active users as of December. The chatbot has been integrated into Douyin, ByteDance's short-video app and the Chinese counterpart to TikTok, expanding its consumer reach.
Alibaba has been advancing its own footprint since November when it launched the Qwen app, a revamped version of its chatbot that is powered by the earlier Qwen 3.0 model. The Qwen app has attracted more than 100 million monthly active users.
Earlier this month, Alibaba disclosed plans to connect Qwen with its e-commerce sites, online travel services and Ant Group's payments infrastructure. The company intends for the chatbot to function as a practical assistant capable of handling real-life tasks such as ordering food and booking travel. Citing employees familiar with the initiative, The Information reported that Alibaba's internal target is to complete integration of all Alibaba ecosystem services into the Qwen app during the first half of 2026.
The competitive landscape may tighten further: The Information has also reported that DeepSeek is planning to release its next major model around the same holiday period. The clustering of product releases around mid-February highlights how major developers are targeting the same high-engagement window to introduce upgrades and broaden user adoption.
Contextual note: Reporting on planned product names, launch timing, user metrics and internal targets in this piece follows the details provided by sources cited in The Information.