As the only "national level" traffic window of the year, AI manufacturers have become increasingly fierce in the battle for future traffic entry slots during the Spring Festival of the Year of the Horse. AI assistant Doubao wins cooperation with CCTV Spring Festival Gala; AI assistant Yuanbao spreads through WeChat groups and Moments with simple red envelope fission, attracting new customers at the lowest cost; AI assistant Qianwen deeply binds its rich consumption scenarios and cultivates users' payment habits during the process of buying New Year's goods with tangible "free order" benefits. People compete for cash in ingots, order milk tea and stock up on New Year's goods in Qianwen, and play lucky draws in bean buns... The upgraded "red envelope war" has also pushed major AI applications to the top of the app store download list. From the peak showdown of "Red Envelope Rain" on New Year's Eve to the AI assistant on top app stores, how will AI enter thousands of households this Spring Festival? After the real money falls, how many users can they retain? New Year's Eve: According to the statistics of AI manufacturers' public data, many Internet giants will invest more than 8 billion yuan in the 2026 Spring Festival. Behind this Spring Festival offensive is a strategic bet by various companies on the future form and entry status of AI. From the perspective of budget allocation, the determination of each company's bet is clearly visible: Qianwen App broke its Spring Festival activity investment record with 3 billion yuan and continued to expand the use of free card scenarios, extending from milk tea and fresh produce to grain, oil, rice, flour, and convenience stores in supermarkets; Yuanbao launches a 1 billion yuan red envelope subsidy, allowing users to unlock lottery opportunities by completing simple tasks such as browsing notifications and AI conversations; Dou Bao won the exclusive cooperation rights of CCTV Spring Festival Gala, using it as a springboard to reach the widest user base. The investment strategies of current giants have shown differentiation. ”Chen Liteng, a digital life analyst at the NetEase E-commerce Research Center, stated that Baidu adheres to the integration of "search+AI" and attempts to occupy a position in information distribution scenarios; Tencent relies on its social genes to promote "red envelope+fission" and leverage user growth at the lowest cost; Alibaba focuses on the "AI+consumption" closed loop and cultivates users' payment habits with real money and free orders; ByteDance, on the other hand, attempts to replicate the miracle of "breaking the circle" by leveraging entertaining interactions and top-level exposure on the Spring Festival Gala stage. On the New Year's Eve of February 16th, the battle of traffic "card battle" reached its peak. That night, Doubao gave out a massive amount of gifts and cash red envelopes, including the latest technology products, on the CCTV Spring Festival Gala, with a total interaction volume of 1.9 billion times through AI; Yuanbao announced the addition of one hundred 10000 yuan cash "Little Horse Cards" that evening, igniting user enthusiasm with simple and direct cash incentives; Qianwen even held four consecutive "Red Envelope Rains" on New Year's Eve, in conjunction with its "3 billion yuan free order" campaign, allowing users to experience the convenience of AI ordering while grabbing red envelopes. What has the investment of real gold and silver brought to users? From February 1 to February 16, through multiple participation in various platform activities, we received 41.66 yuan of cash red packets, including 18.12 yuan of Yuanbao, 11.38 yuan of Doubao, 7.12 yuan of Qianwen, and 5.04 yuan of Alipay. All cash can be withdrawn without threshold. In addition, there are five free cards worth 25 yuan, a 16.88 yuan Alipay red envelope, and more than 20 coupons covering film, fresh food, travel and other Spring Festival consumption scenes. Xiao Xia, a healthcare industry practitioner born in the 2000s, said that since the 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month, he has completed tasks on various platforms every day. As of New Year's Eve, he has won a total of 20.2 yuan in gold ingots and red envelopes, 8.14 yuan in bean buns, 6.56 yuan in thousand questions, as well as 10 25 yuan thousand question free cards and several food delivery vouchers he received from inviting friends. Actually, it didn't take much time, just a little bit while scrolling through my phone. The tasks are very simple, enough to drink several cups of milk tea in one Spring Festival, "he said. The ranking of the app store has become the most intuitive "battle report" of this Spring Festival offensive. As of February 17th, in the free app ranking, four AI assistants, Ant Afu, Yuanbao, Doubao, and Qianwen, dominated the top four of the list, leaving behind many traditional apps. The ambitions of AI manufacturers are not limited to online platforms. Naming, program implantation, exclusive cooperation... The Spring Festival Gala stage of CCTV and major TV stations has become the most intense epitome of this entrance competition. Doubao gives out technology products and cash red envelopes on CCTV Spring Festival Gala; The health AI assistant "Ant Afu" is cleverly integrated into the CCTV Spring Festival Gala program; Qianwen has won the exclusive naming rights for the Spring Festival Gala of the Year of the Horse on four TV stations, namely Dongfang, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, and Henan; Baidu has become the chief AI partner of Beijing Broadcasting and Television Station's Spring Festival Gala. From online to offline, from mobile screens to TV screens, AI manufacturers are weaving a ubiquitous traffic network. And when the hustle and bustle of New Year's Eve dissipates, the real test has just begun. Beyond red envelopes: User retention test has just begun. On February 17th, multiple AI assistants shared their Spring Festival transcripts. Yuanbao stated that the Spring Festival main venue has accumulated over 3.6 billion lucky draws, and users have completed AI tasks over 1 billion times through the "Create" column. Doubao announced that on New Year's Eve, it will send over 100000 technology gifts and cash red envelopes to audiences across the country through the CCTV Spring Festival Gala, with a total AI interaction volume of 1.9 billion times. This number is several times higher than the same period last year. Qianwen revealed that during the Spring Festival event, over 130 million people ordered milk tea, hoarded New Year's goods, bought movie tickets, and booked flights and hotels at Qianwen, with nearly half of the AI orders coming from county towns. The Spring Festival traffic has natural strong pulse, short window period, and high timeliness characteristics, more like a real stress test nationwide. In less than a month, through the concentrated efforts during the Spring Festival period, users downloaded the app, completed interactive and experiential functions, and the user base of AI assistants rapidly increased. Behind the hustle and bustle, a real question emerges: when the red envelopes are scattered, will these users attracted by "real money and silver" still stay? On the first day of the Chinese New Year, it was found that the frequency of sharing red envelope links in family groups had significantly decreased. After the second day of the first lunar month, the entrance for grabbing red envelopes has disappeared, and the AI applications that interacted with each other every day a few days now have almost zero opening times on mobile phones. Ms. Wang, who is 50 years old, withdrew a total of 29 yuan. She said, "I am quite happy, but I haven't opened it again after the New Year. I don't usually use it, and keeping several apps with duplicate functions also takes up memory. I am preparing to uninstall them. ”Guo Tao, Deputy Director of the China E-commerce Expert Service Center, stated that users solely driven by red envelopes generally have a 7-day retention rate below 20%, and a 30 day retention rate may even fall below 5%. Red envelopes can only solve the problem of "why users use them", but cannot answer "why they continue to use them". Chen Liteng stated that the short-term surge in data for AI assistants is not a victory, but depends on the quality of user retention and the depth of behavior conversion after the holiday. Every investment during the Spring Festival period is not only about traffic, but also an opportunity to cultivate user habits. Therefore, AI manufacturers are already preparing for user retention after the Spring Festival. The AI capabilities of Doubao are deeply embedded in all of its core products, and hardware explorations such as Doubao AI smartphones and AI headphones are actively being promoted. Internal testing of "Yuanbao Pai" social function: Users can create or join "Pai" to allow Yuanbao AI to summarize group chats, create interest check-in activities, and also engage in "image creation" to stimulate fun, attempting to explore new social scenarios of "human-machine symbiosis". Wu Jia, President of the C-end Business Group at Qianwen, stated that the ability of AI to handle tasks is not achieved overnight and must be continuously honed in the real world. Bringing AI into users' daily lives is an unchanged direction. Alibaba insiders have stated that the Qianwen Spring Festival event will continue to increase, while also adding existing discounts on platforms such as Taobao flash purchase, Fliggy, and Damai. This will encourage more users to transition from holiday experiences to daily use and actively explore new lifestyles in the AI era. In Guo Tao's view, although the platform is well aware of the challenges of red envelope driven user retention, and the input-output ratio may not be optimistic, at the moment when mobile Internet traffic peaked, AI was seen as the key to restructuring the pattern and controlling the distribution of next-generation traffic. Therefore, various manufacturers have to engage in this unavoidable battle for entry. Tian Lihui, a professor of finance at Nankai University, said that the goal of red envelope marketing for the Spring Festival this year has shown a long-term trend - the red envelope investment of Internet giants is changing from traffic to ecological cultivation. When the hustle and bustle of New Year's Eve subsides, the real test has just begun. The answer to whether those users who flooded into the red envelope rain can finally turn into daily company is that every ordinary morning after the Spring Festival - when users wake up, the first thing they think of is to open WeChat chat, click on Tiktok for relaxation, or say to the AI helper who once sent red envelopes: "Buy me a cup of coffee"? As Wu Jia said, it is an unstoppable reality for AI to truly enter thousands of households and reach ordinary users. (New Society)