Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (BABA) is making its Qwen AI app a lot more useful for everyday life. Just weeks after launching, the company is connecting Qwen with Amap, its massive mapping and navigation platform, to handle real-world tasks like finding restaurants, booking hotels, and navigating traffic—all through a single conversational interface.
What This Actually Means for Users
The integration gives Qwen access to Amap's database of real-time traffic updates and over 200 million points of interest, according to a report from SCMP on Thursday. Instead of bouncing between apps, users can ask Qwen for restaurant suggestions, hotel bookings, or directions and get answers pulled directly from Amap's data.
Amap itself is no small player. Founded in 2002 and acquired by Alibaba in 2014, it had 895.5 million monthly active users as of June. The integration also taps into Amap's "Street Stars" rankings, an AI-powered feature that highlights popular offline destinations, to improve Qwen's recommendations.
Qwen's Explosive Growth
This move comes as Qwen has been growing at a breakneck pace. Launched in November, it quickly became the world's fastest-growing AI app. According to AI tracker Aicpb.com, Qwen's monthly active users surged 149% in just one month, hitting 18.34 million.
Alibaba has described the Amap integration as a milestone in Qwen's evolution into a daily "life and work partner." The company is clearly trying to build synergy across its ecosystem, turning Qwen into a "super app" that connects its various services under one roof.
Beyond Consumers: Enterprise AI Adoption
Alibaba isn't just focused on consumer applications. The company is also pushing its Qwen foundation models into enterprise and industry use cases. Alibaba Cloud recently announced "Tiandun," a new AI model developed with China Southern Airlines and trained on Qwen. It's being used for pilot training, flight risk alerts, and fault maintenance.
Domestically, Alibaba has unified its chatbot, assistants, cloud tools, and AI hardware under the Qwen Consumer Business Group to create a cross-device experience. Internationally, the company is gaining recognition too—Meta Platforms has adopted Alibaba's open-source Qwen models, signaling that its AI technology is resonating beyond China.
Analysts Bullish on AI and Cloud Strength
Wall Street is taking notice. Analysts view Alibaba as a major player in AI and cloud computing. The stock is up more than 73% year-to-date, driven largely by strength from its cloud unit and the growing adoption of Qwen AI models.
Nomura highlights Alibaba's increasing AI adoption and innovation across China's tech sector, noting that Qwen models are scaling across consumer apps, cloud services, and hardware.
BABA Price Action: Alibaba shares were up 0.87% at $148.36 at publication on Thursday.