Alibaba AI To C Changes Formation Again: Tmall Genie Merges with Quark to Explore AI Glasses | Exclusive from Zhiyong
Written by Deng Yongyi
Edited by Su Jianxun and Yang Xuan
Alibaba's AI To C layout adjustment is still ongoing.
"Intelligent Emergence" has learned from multiple independent sources that recently, Alibaba's Intelligent Connectivity Business Group has been officially placed under the management of Wu Jia, the president of the Intelligent Information Business Group.
"Intelligent Connectivity" is a first-level business department established by Alibaba in 2022, and its core brand is "Tmall Genie", which is one of the few To C hardware businesses within Alibaba. In the future, Intelligent Connectivity will remain independently operated, and Song Gang, the head of the Tmall Genie Business Center, will report to Wu Jia.
"Intelligent Emergence" understands that the hardware team of Tmall Genie is already working with the Quark product team. Their work focuses include the planning and definition of a new generation of AI products, as well as the integration with Quark's AI capabilities.
In addition, after the team integration, the new team will also explore new hardware directions including AI glasses.
"Intelligent Emergence" has confirmed the above information with Alibaba. As of the time of publication, there is no reply.
Alibaba is gradually integrating its To C large model-related businesses. In the just-passed December, "Intelligent Emergence" exclusively reported that the product team of Alibaba's AI application "Tongyi" was entirely transferred from Alibaba Cloud Intelligence to the Alibaba Intelligent Information Business Group, led by Wu Jia.
In 2024, Alibaba is still promoting organizational adjustment and optimization. Alibaba CEO Wu Yongming is also focusing on promoting the "younger generation" strategy, aiming to have the post-85s and post-90s take office and become core managers, and Wu Jia is one of them.
The Alibaba Intelligent Information Business Group is an important outlet for Alibaba's To C AI business. "Intelligent Emergence" understands that in addition to Tongyi and Tmall Genie, which have just been merged, this business group also has businesses such as Quark, Shuqi Novels, UC Browser, and Super HuiChuan Advertising Platform. Among them, Quark has developed from the original browser business into a brand that integrates AI search and AI education.
After this adjustment, this business group has also established a complete chain from content, AI applications to AI hardware.
The training and reasoning of large models require a large amount of interactive data and content, and this adjustment is also more conducive to the innovative iteration of the large model business.
On the other hand, this is also a manifestation of the further enhancement of the importance of the Tmall Genie business.
Tmall Genie was established in 2017 and originated from Alibaba's Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (AI Labs). Later, as an important layout in Alibaba's IoT field, it exists as an independent brand.
Tmall Smart Speaker X6
This business grew in the "Entrance Battle" of the AI 1.0 era. In 2014, Amazon launched the smart speaker Echo in 2014, setting off a global "Hundred Box Battle" - representative players include Tmall Genie under Alibaba, Xiaodu under Baidu, and Chumenwenwen among start-ups; abroad, there are Alexa by Amazon, HomePod by Apple, etc.
However, the capabilities of AI terminals in this period were quite limited. Apart from completing simple instructions (such as controlling home appliance switches) and conversations, there were not many available scenarios. With the AI 1.0 era entering a low tide, the growth of AI terminals also began to slow down - according to Lotu Data, the sales of smart speakers in China reached their peak in 2020 and then began to decline.
In 2022, Alibaba established the first-level business department "Intelligent Connectivity" on top of the Tmall Genie business. This organization integrated the consumer AloT ports within the group to try to find new opportunities externally.
During this period, Tmall Genie is no longer limited to smart speakers, but has expanded To B businesses including the industrial ecological alliance, and output the capabilities of AIoT to more partners. According to the data disclosed by Tmall Genie, in 2022, the intelligent interaction system AliGenie has been connected to 40 million household users, 1,000 IoT platforms, and 460 million terminals.
△ Source: Alibaba's "Intelligent Connectivity" Strategy
Nowadays, the capabilities of large models in dialogue interaction and intent understanding have been greatly improved, bringing new opportunities to the long-silent fields such as IoT (Internet of Things) and AI hardware.
After the arrival of the large model wave, Tmall Genie has made many innovative moves. In May 2024, the new product X6 launched by Tmall Genie is equipped with AI large model services including Quark.
In 2023, Tmall Genie also released a new brand "Future Genie" (XGENIE), upgraded the large model service, and released three new products: smart glasses, portable smart speakers, and children's smart tablets.
In the field of large models, in 2023, major companies and start-ups once shouted to "Build China's OpenAI", but by 2024, they have turned to a more cautious strategy - focusing on AI applications and implementation, giving up pre-training, etc.
However, in 2025, the center stage undoubtedly belongs to AI hardware - at the just-ended top global consumer electronics conference CES, there is already a momentum of the "Hundred Glasses Battle". Categories including AI glasses, AI headphones, and AI toys will also set off another innovation wave.
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This article is from the WeChat public account "Intelligent Emergence", by Deng Yongyi, and is published with the authorization of 36Kr.