Alibaba’s (BABA) (HK:9988) upgraded AI app, Quark, crushed ByteDance’s Doubao and DeepSeek to become the top app in China. Alibaba’s Hong Kong-listed shares jumped over 5% at the time of writing, bringing year-to-date gains to more than 30%. Meanwhile, U.S.-listed BABA stock has surged over 25% so far this year.
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The news offered some relief to investors, as BABA stock had fallen 24% over the past 30 days following U.S. President Donald Trump’s announcement of steep tariffs on China, which triggered retaliatory measures from Beijing. Most recently, Trump imposed a 145% reciprocal tariff on Chinese goods.
Alibaba’s Quark Takes the Lead
Alibaba’s revamped Quark app has emerged as a frontrunner in China’s competitive AI landscape. Its transformation from a basic utility app to an “AI super assistant” has driven a surge in user adoption.
According to AI product tracking platform Aicpb.com, Quark led all Chinese AI apps globally in March with close to 150 million active users monthly. On the other hand, ByteDance’s Doubao and DeepSeek followed with nearly 100 million and 77 million users, respectively.
Notably, the Aicpb.com platform compiles data from Apple’s (AAPL) and Google’s (GOOGL) app stores globally, along with Chinese Android stores, but does not account for direct visits to chatbot websites. Alibaba previously stated that Quark, available on both mobile and desktop, has reached 200 million users, though it hasn’t broken down the figures by platform.
Alibaba’s Bold AI Shift Gains Traction
Alibaba’s aggressive pivot toward AI is starting to pay off, with its Quark app leading the charge. The app’s surge in popularity signals growing momentum in Alibaba’s AI strategy. The company has accelerated its AI efforts since the beginning of the year, launching a series of innovations. Among them is a powerful model from its Qwen 2.5 lineup, capable of processing and understanding text, images, audio, and video.
In March, Alibaba rolled out the enhanced version of Quark, featuring its powerful QwQ-32B reasoning model, amid growing competition in the AI sector. The app now integrates chatbot capabilities, sophisticated reasoning, and task-handling features into a single platform.
Is Alibaba Stock a Good Buy Now?
On TipRanks, BABA stock has a Strong Buy consensus rating based on 16 Buys assigned in the last three months. At $167.13, the Alibaba share price target implies a growth rate of 55.14% on the current trading price.
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