Li Jiaqi Sells 100,000 AI Memberships in 30 Minutes as China Brings Tokens to the Shopping Cart

A one fen offer puts AI on the livestream shelf

Li Jiaqi sold about 100,000 monthly memberships for Alibaba's QwenWork office AI service in roughly 30 minutes on November 2, 2026, turning an allowance of about 2 trillion AI tokens into a Double 11 shopping attraction. Each membership cost 0.01 yuan, or one fen, under a promotion for first subscribers.

About 50,000 memberships sold in the first 10 minutes. Alibaba Group vice president and QwenWork chief executive Chen Yusen joined the host, better known for selling cosmetics, to demonstrate software that could draft documents, process data and create presentations.

The numbers describe a striking bargain. At the advertised price, 100,000 memberships would generate about 1,000 yuan in payments. The monthly membership normally costs 28 yuan, making the promotional price about 99.96% lower. For Alibaba, the immediate opportunity was to introduce the service to a large audience and encourage people to start using it.

The sale also brought an unfamiliar product into a familiar setting. Instead of visiting a developer's website and working through technical billing options, shoppers could buy access to AI through the same kind of livestream used to sell lipstick, appliances and household supplies.

Li asked whether the technology could create a digital version of him to chat with fans around the clock. Chen, speaking as QwenWork's chief executive, answered:

AI can't replace Li Jiaqi.

Chen said he preferred helping users finish everyday tasks so they could leave work on time and spend more time with their families. That practical pitch ran through the broadcast: show people a task they recognise, then offer a very cheap way to try completing it with AI.

What buyers actually received

Each membership was described as including an allowance equivalent to 20 million tokens. Multiplying that figure by 100,000 memberships produces the headline total of 2 trillion tokens.

A token is a small unit of information that an AI model processes or produces. In text, it can be a word, part of a word or a punctuation mark. Developers use token counts to measure usage and calculate charges, much as a mobile service measures data consumption.

QwenWork also presented its membership through a more accessible measure: 500 monthly credits, illustrated as roughly 50 presentations, 160 weekly reports or 250 spreadsheets. Those examples gave viewers a sense of the work they might complete rather than asking them to picture millions of tokens.

The promotion, which began on November 1, offered unlimited standard mode use without consuming credits. Images, audio and video still used credits, and basic users could face queues during busy periods. The token allowance, the credit balance and the standard mode benefit therefore described different parts of the service. Buyers needed to check which rules applied to the tasks they wanted to perform.

How the launch unfolded

Tmall had spent two months building a retail channel for AI services before Li's broadcast. The preparations included branded stores and a central place to buy subscriptions or add usage allowances.

• September 2: Zhipu, also marketed as Z.AI, opened an official flagship store on Tmall.
• September 3: Tmall launched its AI Space Station token recharge centre.
• October 20: Double 11 early sales opened, with Alibaba recording a sharp increase in token category transactions.
• October 26: Doubao Work began daily livestream sales of memberships, including monthly plans, annual plans and team access.
• November 1: QwenWork's promotion began, including standard mode use without credit deductions.
• November 2: Li's livestream sold about 100,000 QwenWork monthly memberships in roughly half an hour.
• November 11: The Double 11 shopping festival reaches its traditional culmination.

The rollout brought several forms of AI purchasing into one shopping season. Monthly memberships offered access for a set period, annual plans asked for a longer commitment, and recharge packages allowed customers to add usage as needed.

Alibaba and its rivals were competing to become the place where shoppers would return when they next needed AI access. Search, payment, customer service and familiar brand stores were central to that effort.

Shopping platforms compete for AI customers

Tmall's AI Space Station brought together services from Alibaba Cloud, MiniMax, Moonshot AI and Z.AI. Other developers entering the broader shopping category included QwenWork and StepFun.

JD.com created its own AI token section, with services including DeepSeek, Z.AI and ByteDance's Volcano Engine. Its wider recharge operation also featured suppliers such as JD Cloud and MiniMax. During a Double 11 livestream promotion, JD.com offered token packages for 0.01 yuan and distributed 1 billion tokens within an hour.

Alibaba put AI subscriptions alongside hardware that could make use of them. Li's broadcast featured three computers with QwenWork built in, as well as devices including DingTalk A1 and QwenNote A2. The sales pitch linked the software allowance to equipment people might already be considering for work.

Li said his own livestream business used AI and large datasets to analyse shopping preferences and generate rankings in real time. During the programme, he and Chen demonstrated AI assistants across office work, education, daily life and entertainment. An AI assistant, often called an agent, can help carry out a sequence of tasks rather than simply answer a question.

Fast growth starts from a small retail base

Alibaba put Taobao token category transaction growth at 450% compared with the previous month. The measurement period was described as October 20, the opening day of early sales, in several accounts, and as October 1 to 20 in another. A 450% increase means spending reached 5.5 times the comparison level.

Alibaba also said searches for Zhipu rose fiftyfold within 48 hours of its Tmall store opening, while sales of related AI token subscriptions increased by more than 160%. JD.com's cloud token product sales rose 167% from the previous month through October 30.

Earlier storefront totals were modest. On October 23, Z.AI's monthly GLM Coding Plan Lite listing on JD.com showed more than 100 sold. Its Tmall store showed about 300 sales across token products, while MiniMax's Tmall shop showed just over 100.

Li's heavily promoted membership reached a much larger audience. The comparison shows how strongly a famous host and an unusually low entry price can affect demand. Ordinary storefront sales, where buyers pay closer to the regular price, remain an important part of the business picture.

Most token plans were not deeply discounted

Z.AI's GLM Coding Plan Lite monthly subscription was reduced from 118 yuan to 115 yuan on JD.com, a saving of about 2.5%. Its listed Tmall price was 116.90 yuan. Those reductions were far smaller than QwenWork's one fen introductory offer.

Several other stores, including those selling JD Cloud, MiniMax and Alibaba Cloud services, were offering no special Double 11 token discounts in the October 23 checks. Tmall chief executive Jia Luo said the platform would not provide vouchers specifically for tokens at that time.

Model prices also varied with the service being purchased. Listed examples included Kimi Pro at 26 yuan per million input tokens and 136 yuan per million output tokens, compared with DeepSeek rates during quiet periods of 1 yuan and 4.5 yuan respectively. Input is the information sent to a model; output is what it generates in response.

Customers therefore faced more than a choice between larger and smaller packages. They also needed to consider the model, its abilities, the kind of work involved and any restrictions on when the advertised price applied. A cheap allowance is most useful when the service can complete the buyer's actual tasks.

China's AI audience is large, but payment is less common

China had more than 700 million generative AI users in the first half of 2026, according to figures attributed to the China Internet Network Information Center. About 76% used AI to answer questions, while 32.5% used it for work tasks such as summaries, meeting notes or presentations.

A May survey by Tencent Research found that 9.8% of AI users paid for AI tools. The figures point to a substantial commercial challenge: many people already know what AI is, while a much smaller share have made paying for it a habit.

Lian Jye Su, chief analyst at technology research firm Omdia, described why shopping promotions could appeal to existing users:

Chinese consumers are now very accustomed to using AI productivity tools.

Su said frequent users could run short of credits, making purchases during a sale reasonable. He also warned that rapid changes in AI products could discourage customers from paying far in advance for services that might be replaced or retired.

Different workloads also favour different payment methods. An AI video producer described preferring to buy usage when needed because a fixed monthly allowance did not match changing demand. A monthly office subscription may fit someone who writes reports every week, while occasional intensive projects can make flexible purchases more attractive.

Renewals and reliable access will decide the business

Zhuang Shuai, founder of Bailian Consulting, identified actual AI tool use and the conversion of users into paying customers as key measures to watch during this Double 11. Cui Lili, deputy director of the Institute of Digital Economy at Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, described the livestream's immediate role as market education.

The next commercial test is how many of the roughly 100,000 buyers activate their memberships, use the service regularly and renew at an ordinary price. Renewal results for this group have not been disclosed.

Customer access is another practical issue. Feedback on a Zhipu monthly card sold through JD.com included complaints that purchases needed manual help before the allowance arrived. The listing had a reported positive review rate of 67%. QwenWork's payment journey also drew complaints about repeated requests to scan a code and log in again when moving between its application and website.

Tmall's AI software listing rules require sellers to specify token allowances, model versions and API validity periods. An API is the connection through which software sends requests to an AI service. Clear expiry dates and product descriptions help buyers understand how long their purchase lasts and where they can use it.

AI joins a much larger shopping festival

AI hardware was growing alongside subscriptions. Alibaba said AI computer transactions on Taobao and Tmall rose more than 300% from a year earlier during the opening hour of checkout. JD.com recorded growth of more than 130% from the previous month across more than 50 new AI hardware products, including printers, keyboards and ski sensors.

The broader festival grew more slowly. Syntun Data put transactions across major platforms at 1.0263 trillion yuan from October 7 to 31, up 2.4% from a year earlier. Home appliances and smartphones remained leading categories, with spending also spread across food, cosmetics, sports and outdoor goods.

Li's token sale gives AI developers a route to consumers who may never visit a specialist computing platform. Its lasting value will depend on whether the membership helps those buyers complete enough useful work to justify another purchase. For shoppers, the essential calculation is simple: the price matters, and so do the tasks completed, the ease of access and the cost after the promotion ends.

Key Points

• Li Jiaqi sold about 100,000 QwenWork monthly memberships in roughly 30 minutes on November 2.
• The 0.01 yuan promotion was limited to first subscribers; the normal monthly price was 28 yuan.
• The memberships represented about 2 trillion tokens in usage allowances, with separate rules for standard mode and media tasks.
• Tmall, JD.com and other shopping channels are expanding sales of AI subscriptions and recharge packages.
• Many regular token plans carried little or no Double 11 discount.
• Activation, regular use and renewal at ordinary prices are the next tests for the livestream's commercial success.