Alibaba Stitches Together Shopping, Travel, and Payments Into One AI Monster
Like Frankenstein’s monster joltingto life, Alibaba just shouted, “It’s alive!” On Thursday, the Chinese tech heavyweight plugged its Qwen AI into its vast consumer empire — letting 100M users shop, book travel, and pay from one flagship chatbot. The move throws Alibaba into the agentic arms race against US rivals, but with one crucial trump card.
- Starting with done-for-you meal delivery, Qwen now links with Alipay, Taobao, and Fliggy — featuring an invite-only assistant that calls restaurants and handles complex tasks.
- Already up 107% this past year, the release bumped a further 0.6% yesterday — with VP Wu Jia declaring “a shift from models that understand to systems that act.”
Distribution shortcut: In contrast to Amazon and Meta, Alibaba’s super-app ecosystem delivers an “initial advantage,” according to Bloomberg. Still, despite the ability to stitch hundreds of in-house services into one personal assistant, trades at a trailing price-to-earnings ratio of 22.1x — well below the ~33x enjoyed by Amazon and Google. The valuation screams opportunity, but regulatory overhang and China exposure keep Western investors cautious. Call it the genius many are afraid to fund.
