Alibaba's Qwen not working, not issuing coupons: What's the reason behind?

In a disruptive development, Alibaba's renowned artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot Qwen has stopped working and is not issuing coupons due to an overwhelming number of users on the platform.

The ongoing problem with Alibaba's popular LLM has resulted in a disrupted user experience at a time when thousands are participating in a new campaign launched to showcase its capabilities beyond simple question-answering for shopping assistance.

"Everyone's enthusiasm for experiencing AI shopping is too high! Currently, there are too many participants in 'Qwen free order'; we are working tirelessly to maintain the campaign's experience," Qwen stated.

What's Qwen's free order and coupon giveaways?

As part of the latest campaign, Qwen was offering coupons allowing users to make in-app purchases from Alibaba-owned retail platforms using prompts from the chatbot. The move is part of a 3-billion-yuan ($433 million) strategy to attract more users during China's annual Spring Festival holiday.

Qwen's coupons for Alibaba-owned e-commerce shopping sites will remain valid til February 28, the chatbot assured users, providing ample time to redeem.

Since January, Alibaba has been working to position Qwen as a one-stop shop for users, providing access to various apps directly within the chatbot and complete payments. This makes for an experience similar to how Google integrates its Gemini chatbot into its own platforms, like Google Maps.

The rollout of this Agentic AI strategy has faced technical hindrances since the coupon giveaway started, bringing the coupon issuance to a standstill.

The unexpected and unwelcoming move has occurred just nine hours after the campaign kicked off, with Alibaba reporting that 10 million orders were placed.