China’s ‘Lipstick King’ hawks tokens as AI gets mass-market Singles’ Day push

China's "Lipstick King," live-streamer Li Jiaqi, has shifted his focus from cosmetics to artificial intelligence. On Singles' Day, Li teamed up with Alibaba Group executive Chen Yusen to introduce AI subscriptions via Alibaba's e-commerce platforms Taobao and Tmall. Within just 30 minutes, Li sold nearly 100,000 monthly packages, generating significant buzz.

This marked the first time generative AI products took center stage during the annual shopping festival, highlighting a broader push by Chinese tech firms to market AI to mass consumers. Li explained that AI "tokens" are the "fuel" that powers AI, similar to how cars need fuel and household appliances need electricity. During the broadcast, Chen and Li demonstrated practical applications of AI agents, such as drafting documents and generating slide decks.

Alibaba's Qwen Office monthly subscriptions, normally priced at 28 yuan (US$4.21), were discounted to just 0.01 yuan during the live stream, allowing viewers to buy 2 trillion tokens within half an hour. The segment also featured Qwen-related hardware, including AI-powered laptops, voice recorders, and desktop robots, targeting both office and personal scenarios.

Alibaba's Tmall has introduced AI tokens as a standalone consumer category for Singles' Day, allowing shoppers to top up computing credits easily. At least six Chinese AI developers have joined Alibaba's token marketplace, including Alibaba Cloud, Z.ai, Moonshot AI, and DeepSeek, with MiniMax launching an official Tmall flagship storefront in October.

According to the China Internet Network Information Centre, over 700 million generative AI users exist in China as of the first half of this year, representing more than half of the nation's population.