Chinas Lipstick King Launches AI Token Package Sales for the First Time at Singles Day Shopping Festival - Thairath English
This year's China's Singles' Day shopping festival features new products reflecting changes in consumer behavior, shifting from discounted cosmetics and electronics toward AI token packages. Austin Li, also known as Li Jiaqi, a famous live-streaming influencer nicknamed "China's Lipstick King," sold 100,000 subscriptions to Alibaba's AI service within just 30 minutes.
China's Singles' Day, held annually on November 11, now includes new products as part of one of the world's largest sales events. For the first time, AI token packages—units of data used in AI model processing—were offered seriously as consumer products.
Austin Li, also known as Li Jiaqi and famously called the "Lipstick King," sold 100,000 subscriptions to QwenWork, Alibaba's AI office service, in just half an hour during a live broadcast on the Taobao Live platform last Monday (2 Nov). The company revealed this sale equated to about 2 trillion AI tokens.
AI tokens are units of data that AI models use to process text and commands; the number of tokens used corresponds to the extent of AI system usage.
Lian Jia Su, chief analyst at technology research firm Omdia, said Chinese consumers are increasingly familiar with AI tools to boost work efficiency. Regular users may exhaust their tokens, making bulk token purchases during sales events reasonable.
However, there is no clear information on how much discount the AI token packages offered during this festival provided compared to regular prices.
This live broadcast marked the first time Li sold AI products, having previously gained fame selling vast amounts of lipstick via live streams, earning the nickname "Lipstick King."
The live stream featured QwenWork token packages, AI-capable laptops, and work-related devices, with Chen Yuxun, Alibaba Group's vice president and QwenWork CEO, joining the broadcast.
During the event, Li asked Chen if AI could create a digital avatar to interact with fans 24/7. Chen responded that AI cannot replace Li yet but hopes the technology will help users manage daily tasks, allowing more family time.
Alibaba stated that Tmall, its e-commerce platform, opened an AI token sales center for Singles' Day, offering consumer packages from companies including Alibaba Cloud, MiniMax, Moonshot AI, and Z.AI.
JD.com also launched an AI token product category, aggregating services from companies such as DeepSeek, Z.AI, and ByteDance's Volcano Engine.
Alibaba reported that AI token package sales from 1–20 October rose 450% compared to the previous month, while sales of AI-capable laptops increased more than 300% year-on-year during the first hour of payment on 11 November.
Omdia analyst Su noted that the relatively long token expiration period might encourage users to stock up in advance but warned that rapid AI product changes could make consumers hesitant to prepay for services at risk of becoming outdated or discontinued.
China's Singles' Day began in 2009 to stimulate consumer spending. Data from external provider Syntun showed that last year the festival generated approximately 1.70 trillion yuan (around 255 billion USD) in revenue across various platforms.
