Ecommerce / news
AI Tokens Overtake Physical Goods as Double 11's Fastest-Selling Item in China
Tmall listed AI tokens as a standalone Double 11 category for the first time, with first-day sales up 450%. A 0.01 RMB Qianwen membership card sold nearly 100,000 units in 30 minutes during a Li Jiaqi livestream.
Alibaba's Tmall gave AI tokens their own dedicated shopping category for this year's Double 11 festival, a first for the platform. The category featured offerings from Zhipu, MiniMax and Alibaba's own Qianwen model, and first-day sales rose 450% against previous baselines.
The standout seller came during a Taobao Live broadcast by top influencer Li Jiaqi, known as the "Lipstick King." A monthly Qianwen AI membership card priced at 0.01 RMB drew close to 100,000 purchases within 30 minutes, unlocking a combined 2 trillion AI tokens for buyers.
The shift moves the festival's bargain-hunting culture away from discounted skincare, electronics and household staples toward raw computing capability. Rather than buying AI-equipped laptops or smartphones, younger shoppers are purchasing access to model capacity directly.
Among Gen Z users and young professionals, the purchases serve everyday tasks: generating code, assembling a last-minute PowerPoint deck or organizing university study notes. Buying tokens has become, for this group, comparable to topping up mobile data.
The trend places AI subscriptions alongside consumer goods in China's largest ecommerce event, with model providers now competing for attention in the same livestream channels used to move cosmetics and gadgets.