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… class="size-full wp-image-137365" src="https://console.kr-asia.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Vietnam-ecommerce-scene.-Illustration-by-KrASIA.png" alt="" width="2084" height="1032" srcset="https://console.kr-asia.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Vietnam-ecommerce-scene.-Illustration-by-KrASIA.png 2084w, https://console.kr-asia.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Vietnam-ecommerce-scene.-Illustration-by-KrASIA-300x149.png 300w, https://console.kr-asia.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Vietnam-ecommerce-scene.-Illustration-by-KrASIA-1024x507.png 1024w, https://console.kr-asia.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Vietnam-ecommerce-scene.-Illustration-by-KrASIA-768x380.png 768w, https://console.kr-asia.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Vietnam-ecommerce-scene.-Illustration-by-KrASIA-1536x761.png 1536w, https://console.kr-asia.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Vietnam-ecommerce-scene.-Illustration-by-KrASIA-2048x1014.png 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 2084px) 100vw, 2084px" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-137365" class="wp-caption-text">Having held off competitive pressure from <a href="/company/lazada">Lazada</a>, Tiki, and other rivals in Vietnam, Shopee’s position as the Southeast Asian country’s market leader is facing renewed pressure. TikTok Shop now <a href="https://kr-asia.com/tiktok-shop-narrows-the-gap-with-shopee-in-southeast-asias-e-commerce-market">commands about 41% market share</a>, according to 2025 data. Graphic by KrASIA.</figcaption></figure>
whereRelatedArticle
<h3>Going broader and scaling faster with Monee</h3>
Monee is the segment where Sea's growth is most directly tied to risk management. The quarter showed the company scaling credit rapidly while reporting stable headline credit metrics.
Monee's fourth-quarter GAAP revenue rose 54.3% YoY to USD 1.13 billion, while adjusted EBITDA increased 24.7% YoY to USD 263.1 million.
Loan principal outstanding reached USD 9.2 billion as of December 31, 2025, up 80.4% YoY. This included USD 8.2 billion on-book and USD 1 billion off-book. The ratio of non-performing loans (NPLs) more than 90 days past due stood at 1.1%.
Details from the earnings call show how Sea is widening the top of the funnel rather than relying only on existing cohorts. Management said it moved beyond a whitelist model to an “all-can-apply” approach for SPayLater and cash loans, adding 5.8 million unique first-time borrowers in Q4.
Active credit users crossed 37 million, up more than 40% YoY, while average loan outstanding per user was about USD 240, up 27% YoY.
The pivot that matters most, however, is Monee's move beyond Shopee checkout. Sea said SPayLater loans outside Shopee grew more than 300% YoY and accounted for more than 15% of its total SPayLater portfolio by the end of 2025. The company cited Malaysia as a market where off-Shopee usage was approaching 30%.
In practical terms, Monee is trying to turn Shopee distribution into a broader consumer finance franchise. That expansion increases the addressable market but also tests underwriting outside a more controlled commerce environment. For that reason, the stability of NPL metrics will remain a key point to watch in 2026.
<h3>Garena holds strong despite softer user engagement</h3>
Garena’s results highlighted the durability of a mature live-service franchise, where profitability can remain strong even as engagement metrics fluctuate.
Bookings rose 23.8% YoY to USD 672.4 million in the fourth quarter. Segment GAAP revenue increased 35.1% YoY to USD 701 million, and adjusted EBITDA rose 25.6% YoY to USD 363.8 million.
User metrics presented a more mixed picture. Quarterly active users reached 633.3 million, up 2.5% from a year earlier but down from 670.8 million in the previous quarter. The paying user ratio was 9.2%, compared with 8.2% a year earlier. Average revenue per paying user declined sequentially to USD 11.6 from USD 12.8 in the third quarter.
Management framed the results as evidence of the durability of Free Fire in terms of live operations and content cadence. Forrest Li, founder and chairman of Sea, described the franchise's persistence during the earnings call:
<blockquote>“It is remarkable for a franchise of its vintage to still be growing so fast.”</blockquote>
<figure id="attachment_117519" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-117519" style="width: 480px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="wp-image-117519" src="https://console.kr-asia.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/SE-OB-Photo-171020-Press-Trading-Post-750x500-1.jpg" alt="Photo of Forrest Li, the founder, chairman, and CEO of Sea Limited." width="480" height="320" srcset="https://console.kr-asia.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/SE-OB-Photo-171020-Press-Trading-Post-750x500-1.jpg 750w, https://console.kr-asia.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/SE-OB-Photo-171020-Press-Trading-Post-750x500-1-300x200.jpg 300w" sizes="(max-width: 480px) 100vw, 480px" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-117519" class="wp-caption-text">Forrest Li, also known as Li Xiaodong, is the founder, chairman, and CEO of Sea Limited. Photo from KrASIA’s archive.</figcaption></figure>
The question for 2026 is whether that growth will remain supported by organic engagement or increasingly rely on higher-frequency collaborations and monetization events that could raise content costs or alter the payer mix over time.
Across its portfolio, Sea's strategy appears consistent. It is pushing growth while attempting to improve the underlying economics:
<ul>
<li aria-level="1">Shopee is scaling logistics, fulfillment, and loyalty to deepen engagement and support monetization.</li>
<li aria-level="1">Monee is broadening access and expanding off-platform use cases while pointing to stable non-performing loan metrics as evidence that credit risk is not deteriorating.</li>
<li aria-level="1">Garena is relying on franchise management and live operations to sustain bookings growth and profitability.</li>
</ul>
The quarter's numbers appear to support each narrative.
The market response, however, suggests investors are focused less on whether Sea can grow and more on whether it can continue doing so without rebuilding familiar vulnerabilities: subsidy dependence at Shopee, credit cycle sensitivity at Monee, and volatility in Garena's engagement and monetization.

Sea fails to impress investors despite strong Q4 results

Sea Group

Shopee

Southeast Asia

Fintech

On-demand Services

E-commerce

Payments

Logistics

Gaming

Lending

Creative

Consumer Economy

China

At this year’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, the first exhibition hall is difficult to overlook. <a href="/company/huawei">Huawei</a> occupies more than half the space inside the cavernous venue, signaling a clear message to the industry. The company wants attention focused on a single keyword: U6GHz.
As the long-term vision for 6G begins to take shape, global exploration of the U6GHz band is accelerating. Operators in the UAE, Brazil, and several European countries have recently conducted experience verification tests supporting speeds of up to ten gigabits per second. These trials highlight the band’s growing relevance for future mobile networks.
Huawei describes U6GHz as a balance among capacity, coverage, and cost. Over the next decade, it could become a core spectrum resource for mobile network expansion and upgrades, functioning as a high-speed foundation for 5G-Advanced (5G-A) and eventually 6G.
During MWC, Huawei introduced a portfolio of U6GHz products and solutions that includes macro sites, small cells, and microwave equipment.
The band still presents technical constraints. Higher frequencies experience greater signal loss, which limits long-distance propagation. In practical terms, U6GHz offers wider bandwidth but does not inherently provide broader coverage.
Huawei’s response centers on a series of AAU (active antenna unit) products. The primary change is scale. Conventional antennas often integrate only dozens of transmitting and receiving units. Huawei’s U6GHz 256 TRX AAU integrates 256 units, which the company compares to hundreds of small flashlights working together.
The AAU also incorporates digital-analog hybrid intelligent beamforming algorithms. These algorithms coordinate the 256 transmitting and receiving units so they function as a single, directed signal source.
According to Huawei, combining dense antenna arrays with beamforming algorithms allows signal energy to be concentrated more efficiently, helping offset propagation loss at higher frequencies. The company states that this approach enables U6GHz to achieve coverage and propagation performance comparable to current mainstream 5G C-band spectrum, which operates at approximately 3.5 GHz.
Once signal attenuation is mitigated, performance becomes the next consideration. Huawei emphasizes two capabilities: 400 MHz ultra-large bandwidth and the MU-MIMO (multi-user, multiple-input, multiple-output) algorithm.
In simplified terms, Huawei expands available spectrum from roughly 100 MHz in conventional 5G deployments to 400 MHz. Wider spectrum allows more data to be transmitted simultaneously. The hyper-resolution MU-MIMO algorithm then manages how multiple users access that spectrum, improving efficiency and resource allocation.
In on-site demonstrations at MWC, Huawei reported that the U6GHz AAU can reach peak downlink capacity of 100 gigabits per second and uplink capacity exceeding ten gigabits per second. For end users, Huawei says the system can support downlink speeds of up to ten gigabits per second and uplink speeds approaching one gigabit per second.
Many <a href="/industry/ai">artificial intelligence</a> applications are expected to run indoors in the coming years. Because U6GHz signals experience higher wall penetration loss, Huawei also introduced U6GHz small cell products to support indoor connectivity.
These small cells support 400 MHz bandwidth in the U6GHz band and integrate U6GHz with other sub-6 GHz bands within a single device. In practice, this creates a unified signal hotspot with multiple spectrum options, allowing both legacy and next-generation devices to connect under the same system.
While AAUs and small cells address outdoor and indoor access, Huawei is also targeting backhaul infrastructure.
To support the high bandwidth requirements of U6GHz base stations, the company introduced new microwave transmission products. These systems use full-duplex technology, enabling simultaneous transmission and reception on the same frequency. Huawei says this approach can deliver high-capacity wireless backhaul without relying on fiber connections.
The goal is to prevent bottlenecks at what network engineers often call the “last mile.”
Taken together, Huawei is building what it describes as a closed-loop network architecture centered on U6GHz. If AI terminals, base stations, and cloud infrastructure operate in coordination, data can move through the network with fewer constraints. Huawei states that its full U6GHz product portfolio is now commercially ready.
KrASIA features translated and adapted content that was originally published by 36Kr. This <a href="https://36kr.com/p/3705512345170309">article</a> was written by Qiu Xiaofen for 36Kr.

Huawei unveils U6GHz portfolio at MWC Barcelona 2026

East Asia

Telecommunications

China is leveraging Hong Kong in its efforts to expand its influence over the gold market, building up trading infrastructure to draw foreign investors while mining companies tap the territory's stock market to fund overseas expansion.
The Hong Kong government recently established Hong Kong Precious Metals Central Clearing, a fully state-owned company that will start operating on a trial basis this year. The government also aims to expand the territory's gold storage facilities to more than 2,000 metric tons within three years. It plans to <a href="https://asia.nikkei.com/business/markets/commodities/hong-kong-shanghai-gold-exchange-team-up-as-price-hits-new-high" target="_blank" rel="noopener">work more closely</a> with the Shanghai Gold Exchange as well.
China is the world's largest producer and consumer of gold, yet international prices are determined largely in the London bullion market and the New York futures market, which have the necessary infrastructure. Chinese authorities hope to change this.
"We will expand the country's market share and influence on prices in the international gold market," said Joseph Chan Ho-lim, Hong Kong's undersecretary for financial services and the treasury, at the Hong Kong Gold Exchange in a Lunar New Year address on February 20.
The planned infrastructure will pave the way for mainland investors to trade and store gold in Hong Kong. This activity could, in turn, draw overseas investors. If Hong Kong becomes established as a bullion market, Asian countries will save on transport and logistics costs compared with handling delivery in London.
Alongside these efforts, gold mining companies in mainland China are expanding overseas. Zijin Gold International, a unit of Zijin Mining Group, one of the largest state-owned players, announced plans in January to <a href="https://asia.nikkei.com/business/business-deals/china-s-zijin-to-buy-canadian-owner-of-gold-mines-in-3-african-countries" target="_blank" rel="noopener">acquire Canada's Allied Gold</a> for about CAD 5.5 billion (USD 4 billion), giving it stakes in projects in Ethiopia and Mali.
The Hong Kong stock market has been funding this overseas expansion. Zijin Gold raised about HKD 28 billion (USD 3.6 billion) through an IPO last September. Chifeng Jilong Gold Mining, China's largest private gold mining company, has <a href="https://asia.nikkei.com/business/markets/commodities/china-s-top-private-gold-miner-lists-in-hong-kong-to-fuel-global-growth" target="_blank" rel="noopener">listed in Hong Kong</a> to fund mines in Laos and Ghana.
Gold mining stocks have outperformed the broader Hong Kong market. Zijin Mining shot up roughly 150% in 2025, then jumped about 26% from the end of 2025 to February 23, beating the benchmark Hang Seng Index, which rose about 28% in 2025 and 6% from year's end to February 23. Chifeng Gold climbed 34% from the end of 2025 to February 23.
The Chinese government's vision of making Hong Kong a gold trading hub is boosting these companies' shares. Higher stock prices can, in turn, enable them to raise more growth capital from the market to boost their expansion abroad.
Geopolitics are likely a factor in the apparent coordination between the public and private sectors to acquire gold-mining rights while also bringing gold trading to China.
"Emerging countries saw how Western countries froze Russia's assets after its invasion of Ukraine and have been moving to keep their gold within their own borders," said Koichiro Kamei, head of Japan's Market Strategy Institute.
The People's Bank of China increased its gold holdings for 15 straight months through January. It has been lowering the share of US treasuries in its foreign currency reserves, in an apparent effort to reduce its reliance on the US dollar.
BofA Securities sees much more room for the Chinese central bank to buy more gold. This could provide support to prices now at record highs of around USD 5,000 per troy ounce.
This article first appeared on <a href="https://asia.nikkei.com/business/markets/commodities/china-eyes-hong-kong-as-gold-trading-hub-in-bid-for-market-dominance">Nikkei Asia</a>. It has been republished here as part of 36Kr’s ongoing partnership with <a href="https://www.kr-asia.com/nikkei-teams-up-with-36kr-in-asia-tech-news-coverage/">Nikkei</a>.

China eyes Hong Kong as gold trading hub in bid for market dominance

Investment

Merger &amp; Acquisition

Hong Kong

… control over vocal styles and emotional expression, producing compositions up to five minutes in length, according to the company.
MiniMax also launched MaxClaw, a cloud-based AI assistant built on OpenClaw. The service does not require local deployment or additional API fees and operates continuously in the cloud. Users with a basic MiniMax Agent subscription can access it immediately. The company said the product gained traction shortly after launch.
Over time, MaxClaw could strengthen user retention and willingness to pay by delivering ready-to-use automated services. Increased usage may also generate feedback data that supports model improvement, reinforcing a cycle between product adoption and model iteration.
<h3>Endorsement from global investment banks</h3>
In recent months, several global and domestic investment banks, including JPMorgan Chase, UBS, Goldman Sachs, CICC, CSC Financial, and Guotai Haitong, initiated coverage on MiniMax. They assigned buy, overweight, or outperform ratings, with target prices above HKD 1,000 (USD 128).
JPMorgan said MiniMax stands out in the foundation model segment for combining technical capabilities, multimodal commercialization potential, and global scalability. It cited the company’s benchmark performance, diversified B2B and B2C monetization pathways, and international expansion strategy.
UBS said MiniMax is positioned to capture AI growth opportunities in both domestic and overseas markets, pointing to its multimodal strategy, R&amp;D execution, and global commercialization footprint.
Goldman Sachs highlighted its diversified revenue structure and multimodal product portfolio.
CICC described MiniMax as one of the few Chinese companies to demonstrate both foundation model capability and global commercialization of AI-native applications.
CSC Financial characterized foundation model competition as an evolving global race, arguing that MiniMax’s sustained model development, cost efficiency, overseas expansion, and open-source and agent ecosystem contribute to its competitive position.
Guotai Haitong cited improvements in technical performance and efficiency, cost control that supports commercialization, and momentum from product iteration and ecosystem expansion in the emerging agent landscape.
JPMorgan added that China’s AI sector is moving beyond an early phase marked by a proliferation of large model startups into a stage defined by commercialization capability, model originality, and global expansion. In that context, it said MiniMax represents not only a technology company, but also China’s broader participation in the global AI value chain.
This <a href="https://xueqiu.com/2854806290/377646197">article</a> was adapted based on a feature originally written by Stone Jin and published on IPO Zaozhidao. KrASIA is authorized to translate, adapt, and publish its contents.

MiniMax’s ARR tops USD 150 million as it pivots toward an AI platform model

MiniMax

Artificial Intelligence

Deep Tech

Foundation and Large Models

… events.</li>
</ul>
Headline comparisons of live commerce metrics can therefore be misleading. While live streams function as an entry point for TikTok Shop, they serve as an engagement layer on Shopee, embedded within a broader transactional ecosystem.
whereRelatedArticle
<h3>The US is next</h3>
Consumers tend to benefit from competition in sectors tied to daily spending, including e-commerce, where promotions, subsidies, and product innovation are often driven by the need to outperform rivals. KrASIA expects Southeast Asia’s market to remain effectively a duopoly for the foreseeable future, even as market share shifts incrementally.
That dynamic may partly explain TikTok Shop’s increased focus on markets outside Southeast Asia, most notably the US, where it has expanded significantly over the past year.
According to <a href="https://momentum.asia/insights/detail/tiktok-shop-in-the-us-h1-2025">Momentum Works</a>, TikTok Shop’s US GMV reached USD 15.1 billion in 2025, representing 68% year-on-year growth. While slower than its initial expansion phase, the pace remains notable.
The report added that 2,143 US stores on TikTok Shop exceeded USD 1 million in GMV in 2025, including 135 that surpassed USD 10 million. The number of influencers generating more than USD 1 million in GMV more than tripled to 1,785. These figures point to rising merchant and creator participation on the platform.
<h3>TikTok Shop is more than a disruptor</h3>
If Shopee’s defining narrative in Southeast Asia during the first half of the 2020s was one of dominance, the years ahead may test the durability of that position as TikTok Shop reshapes competitive dynamics.
E-commerce in the region continues to expand, leaving room for multiple players to compete. No platform can be ruled out, including those currently on the periphery.
While TikTok Shop has clearly moved beyond the role of disruptor, it’s worthwhile to note that Shopee retains structural advantages, including broader GMV, established logistics infrastructure, and integrated financial services. Even so, its margin trajectory and strategic priorities are likely to be shaped, at least in the near term, by the pace and persistence of TikTok Shop’s expansion.

TikTok Shop narrows the gap with Shopee in Southeast Asia’s e-commerce market

TikTok

TikTok Shop

Retail

Singapore

Malaysia

Thailand

Vietnam

Indonesia

Philippines

… for chronic metabolic diseases. It said the proceeds will support clinical development and pipeline expansion. —<a href="https://36kr.com/p/3705039542710665">36Kr</a></li>
<li aria-level="1">WonderLab, a digital mental health platform, has completed a Series B+ round worth an eight-figure RMB sum, with Marathon Venture Partners as the sole investor. The company has also launched a new financing round, with Index Capital serving as financial advisor. WonderLab operates a database containing more than 300,000 real-world mental health patient records and says it provides integrated services across 16 provinces and more than 100 cities in China. It will use the capital primarily for product development. —<a href="https://36kr.com/p/3670040712094601">36Kr</a></li>
<li aria-level="1"><a href="http://www.appsofs.com.cn/">Appsofs Technology</a>, a Beijing-based technology company, has completed a Series B round backed by the Beijing Advanced Manufacturing and Intelligent Equipment Industry Investment Fund. The company develops underwater sensing and equipment systems, including fiber optic hydrophone arrays and distributed fiber sensing instruments. It said the funding will support development of advanced underwater instruments, R&amp;D of unmanned marine systems, and expansion into civilian applications such as marine observation and infrastructure monitoring. —<a href="https://36kr.com/p/3698026314870659">36Kr</a></li>
</ul>
whereRelatedArticle
<h3>Eezee, Diaflow, GIC, and others made recent headlines:</h3>
<ul>
<li aria-level="1"><a href="https://eezee.sg/">Eezee</a>, a Singapore-based procurement and supply chain platform, raised USD 5 million in a pre-Series B round led by Korea Investment Partners. Existing backers Kickstart Ventures and Wavemaker Ventures also participated, alongside several other investors.</li>
<li aria-level="1"><a href="https://www.diaflow.io/">Diaflow</a>, a Singapore-headquartered startup, raised an undisclosed amount of seed funding from Insignia Ventures Partners.</li>
<li aria-level="1">GIC, Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund, anchored Anthropic’s Series G round alongside Coatue. The US-based AI firm raised USD 30 billion in the round at a post-money valuation of USD 380 billion, drawing investment from a slate of institutional and venture capital investors.</li>
</ul>
If there are any news or updates you'd like us to feature, get in touch with us at: <a href="mailto:hello@kr-asia.com">hello@kr-asia.com</a>.

Deals in brief: Aonic, Dyna.Ai, and MyFirst raise Series A funding; Icon1c secures member backing; seven China investments; and more

Venture Capital

Private Equity

… required tour guides to generate on-site sales, a practice that has been criticized for distorting service incentives. By promoting customized travel and small-group products, the platform is encouraging agencies to compete on service design and execution.
Company data indicate that per capita spending on small-group products increased by 80%, while trip duration rose by 13%. On the supply side, the company reports supporting 3,500 small and medium travel agencies in upgrading service capabilities and contributing to the creation of more than 50,000 jobs, with over half located in second-tier and lower-tier cities.
The company also reported that more than 20,000 hybrid driver-and-guide roles were added nationwide in 2025. This reflects a shift toward multifaceted roles that combine transportation and personalized guiding services, aligning with smaller group formats.
<h3>Using technology for inclusion</h3>
Scalability underpins platform enablement, and technology serves as the primary mechanism. In tourism, where transactions depend heavily on information clarity and trust, <a href="/industry/ai">artificial intelligence</a> functions as infrastructure linking domestic suppliers with international demand.
According to Trip.com, it invests approximately RMB 1 billion (USD 140 million) annually in related areas, with technology as a central focus. Its proprietary travel-focused large language model has translated product information from more than 8,000 partners into 25 languages and introduced 63,000 ticket types that can be booked by international visitors.
The system is designed to interpret complex cancellation and refund policies specific to travel services, reducing uncertainty for overseas customers unfamiliar with local terms.
In customer service, AI-driven tools can provide real-time multilingual interpretation in online consultations, while the company’s phone system offers simultaneous interpretation. These functions standardize multilingual support, lowering barriers for small merchants to serve international customers.
In 2025, nearly 70,000 China-based merchants received inbound orders through the company’s overseas platform for the first time, including more than 63,000 hotels, according to company data.
Beyond technology, Trip.com allocated RMB 2.9 billion (USD 406 million) in 2025 to service guarantees, including disaster relief funds, a global SOS platform covering 27 medical assistance providers and one million medical institutions, and round-the-clock multilingual customer support.
These expenditures function as ecosystem-level risk management mechanisms. With platform-backed guarantees, small merchants may be more willing to accept complex international bookings. Travelers, aware of available support systems, may be more inclined to visit less familiar destinations.
Taken together, the company’s investments in regional digital infrastructure, merchant operational tools, multilingual technologies, and service guarantees indicate a reorientation of platform value from transaction scale to ecosystem capacity.
Strategy, capital allocation, and operational involvement have evolved. The platform is assuming greater responsibility for infrastructure development, operational standardization, and risk mitigation. Profitability increasingly reflects returns on these service-intensive activities rather than pure traffic aggregation.
Its main function, however, remains organizing markets and improving efficiency. The longer-term measure of performance may depend less on transaction volume and more on whether regional suppliers become more competitive, tourism resources generate sustainable economic value, and consumers access safer and more diverse travel options.
KrASIA features translated and adapted content that was originally published by 36Kr. This <a href="https://36kr.com/p/3699717997031300">article</a> was written by 36Kr Caijing.

Trip.com invests in the next phase of online travel

Travel

… are expected to account for 28% by 2035. Hybrid models, a strength of Japanese automakers, are expected to rise from 24% to 32% over the same period.
While the Thai market itself is not large, as an export base for neighboring countries, trends there could determine the future of electrification in Southeast Asia.
This article first appeared on <a href="https://asia.nikkei.com/business/automobiles/china-automakers-look-to-toyota-in-next-growth-push-in-thailand">Nikkei Asia</a>. It has been republished here as part of 36Kr’s ongoing partnership with <a href="https://www.kr-asia.com/nikkei-teams-up-with-36kr-in-asia-tech-news-coverage/">Nikkei</a>.

China automakers look to Toyota in next growth push in Thailand

Transportation

Electric Vehicles

Mobility

Qwen’s ordering feature quietly processed millions of orders over Lunar New Year and much of February, turning text and voice prompts into a direct channel for food delivery, ride-hailing, and other services. Now, <a href="/company/alibaba">Alibaba</a> is looking to take that experience beyond the smartphone and into hardware people can wear throughout the day.
According to 36Kr, citing sources familiar with the matter, Qwen is preparing to enter the hardware space. In 2026, Alibaba plans to launch a lineup of consumer devices embedded with <a href="/industry/ai">artificial intelligence</a>, including glasses, earbuds, and rings, with a global rollout strategy.
Among them, Qwen AI glasses debuted at the 2026 Mobile World Congress, with preorders scheduled to begin today.
To deepen cross-device integration, Alibaba plans to migrate functions currently embedded in the Qwen app, such as food ordering and ride-hailing, onto these wearables, 36Kr reported. The goal is continuity: accessing services with minimal friction, regardless of device.
Alibaba is not alone. Meta, after gaining early traction with its Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses, is reportedly building a broader wearable ecosystem centered on AI glasses. Media reports suggest its pipeline includes earbuds, neural wristbands, and smartwatches.
<a href="/company/openai">OpenAI</a> has also reportedly assembled a hardware team of more than 2,000 people. It is said to be planning multiple consumer hardware releases either later this year or in 2027, spanning categories such as smart glasses, voice recorders, and wearable pins.
In China, <a href="/company/bytedance">ByteDance</a> is also preparing its own glasses and earbuds.
Alibaba has already tested the waters. In 2025, its Quark team released AI glasses, while its DingTalk unit launched an AI-powered voice recording device, DingTalk A1. The next phase, however, appears more centralized and strategic.
That shift is reflected in internal restructuring. In December 2025, Alibaba merged its intelligent information and intelligent connectivity business groups to form a new consumer business group focused on Qwen. The unit now oversees the Qwen app, Quark, AI-driven hardware, and other consumer-facing operations under a unified structure.
Alongside these changes, Alibaba has been optimizing its AI models for on-device deployment.
On February 16, it open-sourced a next-generation large model, Qwen 3.5 Plus. The model reportedly uses 60% less memory while increasing maximum inference throughput by up to 19 times. On pricing, Qwen 3.5 Plus charges as little as RMB 0.8 (USD 0.11) per million tokens in API fees, about one-eighteenth the cost of Gemini 3 Pro, according to company disclosures. Memory footprint and operating cost are key constraints for edge devices, making such improvements strategically significant.
For Alibaba, the move appears to be about more than launching a few new gadgets.
Over the past decade, it has built a broad ecosystem of software, from Alipay to Amap, Taobao, Freshippo (also known as Hema), and Fliggy. What it has arguably lacked is a unifying interface that connects these services through Qwen.
That interface could remain an app. But it could also take the form of wearables that serve as a persistent gateway to Alibaba’s digital ecosystem. Glasses, earbuds, rings, and pendants are established wearable formats. They are lightweight, personal, and potentially always on.
There is also a data dimension. Devices worn throughout the day provide a channel to collect first-person, multimodal data from real-world interactions. For companies like Alibaba, such data could feed back into model training and refinement, creating a self-reinforcing feedback loop that strengthens Qwen over time.
Alibaba may also have structural advantages in hardware. On the infrastructure side, it operates Tongyi, one of the largest open-source model families. It has developed its own chip subsidiary, T-Head Semiconductor, which produces the Zhenwu 810E processor, and runs Alibaba Cloud, one of the world’s largest cloud computing platforms by scale.
On the software side, Alibaba controls platforms across payments, mobility, <a href="/industry/e-commerce">e-commerce</a>, grocery retail, and travel. In theory, AI agents could operate across these verticals within a unified ecosystem.
As Alibaba CEO Eddie Wu has previously noted, AI’s potential may lie less within the confines of a smartphone screen and more in how it navigates and manages the digital world. If Qwen becomes that gateway, Alibaba may be positioned to shape the next dominant interface in everyday life.
KrASIA features translated and adapted content that was originally published by 36Kr. This <a href="https://36kr.com/p/3702628151751046">article</a> was written by Qiu Xiaofen for 36Kr.

Alibaba aims to take Qwen from app to wearable interface