经济学人|AI 超级应用重塑中国互联网 AI super-apps are remaking China's internet

点卡片｜关注我

本期文章导读

    中国 AI 超级应用普及极快，超 6 亿人使用代理类应用，互联网进入 AI 主导的第三阶段；阿里、字节、腾讯等巨头把 AI 与核心应用深度融合，竞争激烈。消费疲软下，AI 应用成新增长点，但盈利模式不清晰，布局也有防御性；小米、华为等硬件厂商入局，行业主导权争夺加剧，监管可能介入。

    本文为外刊财经科技文体，句式多长难复合句、定语从句、分词作状语；用词正式精准，多商业 / 科技高阶词；被动、名词化结构多，适配考研 / 雅思 / 六级。

    典型高阶词：agentic、upend、monopoly、backlash、colossus、ferocious、integrate、procure、revamp、ubiquitous、anaemic、rationale、displace、embed、hobble、loom

Illustration: Fortunate Joaquin

To have a coffee delivered to an office in Shanghai, simply ask one of China’s artificial-intelligence super-apps to choose a brew on your behalf, press “confirm” and the beverage will be on its way. Delegating such important decisions brings risks, of course. When your correspondent asked one popular AI app to deliver a “special coffee”, he received a rose-petal-vinegar-flavoured one.

想在上海让咖啡配送到办公室，只需让中国一款 AI 超级应用代你选咖啡，点击 “确认”，饮品就会配送上门。当然，把这类重要决策交给 AI 也有风险。本报记者让一款热门 AI 应用送一杯 “特色咖啡”，结果收到了玫瑰花瓣醋风味的咖啡。

重点词汇解析

Nevertheless, the pace with which such services are being adopted in China is remarkable. Already more than 600m of its people are thought to have used some form of so-called agentic app. China is speeding towards a future in which AI chooses, purchases and delivers many of the goods and services people consume, upending its digital economy in the process.

尽管如此，这类服务在中国的普及速度十分惊人。据统计，已有超 6 亿中国人使用过各类所谓的代理类应用。中国正加速迈向由 AI 代为挑选、购买、配送消费商品与服务的未来，这一过程正颠覆其数字经济。

重点词汇解析

Chinese netizens have so far lived through two distinct internet eras. From the early 2000s most turned to Baidu, a search engine, as their window to the web. When Google was forced to exit the country at the end of the decade, Baidu, in effect, became a monopoly. But as it sought to monetise its service more aggressively, ad-driven recommendations took over, frustrating users. That brought a backlash against web-based search and, thanks to the spread of the smartphone, pushed China into a second internet era dominated by mobile super-apps that combine functions such as shopping, entertainment, communication and payments.

中国网民迄今经历了两个截然不同的互联网时代。21 世纪初，多数人以百度为上网入口。2010 年代末谷歌退出中国后，百度实质形成垄断。百度愈发激进商业化，广告推荐主导引发用户不满，进而催生对网页搜索的抵制；智能手机普及推动中国迈入移动超级应用主导的第二时代，这类应用集购物、娱乐、通讯、支付于一体。

重点词汇解析

One consequence is that China’s biggest technology firms—including Alibaba, an e-commerce titan, ByteDance, an entertainment giant, and Tencent, a gaming-and-messaging colossus—possess sprawling portfolios of digital services and logistics networks that can be used to develop agentic offerings capable of performing a wide variety of tasks for users. Another consequence is that any of these companies could conceivably emerge as the leader of this new, third era in China’s internet. Already the competition is ferocious. On May 13th Pony Ma, founder of Tencent, warned that a messy “land grab” for AI services was in the offing.

一个结果是，阿里、字节跳动、腾讯等中国科技巨头拥有庞大的数字服务与物流网络，可开发覆盖多场景的代理类服务；这些企业均有望成为互联网第三时代领军者，当前竞争已极为激烈。5 月 13 日，腾讯创始人马化腾预警，AI 服务即将上演混乱 “圈地运动”。

重点词汇解析

On May 11th Alibaba announced that it had fully integrated Qwen, its chatbot, with Taobao, its shopping app. With a few simple commands the AI can now procure all manner of products and services (including rose-petal-vinegar-flavoured coffee). ByteDance is preparing to release a similar integration between Doubao, its chatbot, and Douyin, its short-video app (which also incorporates shopping).

5 月 11 日，阿里宣布将通义千问与淘宝全面融合，简单指令即可让 AI 采购各类商品服务。字节跳动正推进豆包与抖音（含购物功能）的同类融合。

重点词汇解析

Tencent has been a dark horse in the race. Its investment in AI models started more slowly, but the company says that over the past six months it has completely revamped how its AI team works. A new model, Hy3, is in a testing phase and has performed well. Tencent is now slowly integrating this model with WeChat, its ubiquitous messaging-and-payments app. Millions of businesses have created “mini-programs” within WeChat that could be woven together with AI.

腾讯是竞赛黑马，AI 模型投入起步晚，近半年已彻底革新 AI 团队模式，Hy3 模型测试表现良好，正逐步融入微信；微信内数百万小程序可与 AI 深度联动。

重点词汇解析

For the tech giants, AI super-apps may offer an attractive new source of growth at a time when consumer spending in China is anaemic. Adjusted operating profit in Alibaba’s Chinese e-commerce division was down by 40% year on year in the first quarter of 2026. And although the firm’s cloud business is booming as enterprises spend more on its AI infrastructure, that growth requires enormous capital investment, weighing on cashflows.

中国消费疲软之际，AI 超级应用成为科技巨头新增长极。2026 年一季度阿里中国电商运营利润同比降 40%；云业务虽因 AI 基建需求蓬勃发展，但需巨额资本投入，拖累现金流。

重点词汇解析

In private China’s tech giants say that their AI super-apps do not recommend products based on ad spending. But to make these profitable, they may eventually have to. Although ByteDance recently launched a paid tier for Doubao users wishing to access certain features, most chatbots in China are free to use. In February, to coincide with the Lunar New Year, many tech giants offered generous promotions to encourage people to start using their agentic services. With competition so intense, it seems unlikely they will start charging for the services soon.

科技巨头私下称 AI 应用不按广告投放推荐商品，但盈利压力下或不得不转向广告模式。字节推出豆包付费功能，国内多数聊天机器人仍免费；春节期间巨头大举促销拉新，激烈竞争下短期难收费。

重点词汇解析

The rationale for the tech giants may also be defensive. Some in the industry worry that the emergence of a device powered by AI with agentic capabilities embedded in its operating system could displace existing super-apps. OpenAI, an American lab, is reportedly working on such a device. ByteDance tried this in December when it launched a smartphone with ZTE, a device-maker, which came pre-loaded with an AI assistant. But despite an initial burst of enthusiasm, with around 30,000 of the devices produced, the project was a failure, in part because Alibaba and Tencent blocked it from using their payment platforms.

巨头布局兼具防御性，业内担忧内置 AI 代理功能的终端会取代现有超级应用。OpenAI 据传研发此类设备，字节与中兴合作的 AI 手机因支付渠道被屏蔽而失败。

重点词汇解析

That will not stop others from trying. In March Xiaomi, a gadget-maker that has expanded into electric vehicles (EVs), announced the release of new AI models that would be embedded in its smartphones and cars. Huawei, another tech giant that makes both smartphones and software systems for EVs, could also muscle in. Auto executives reckon that many young Chinese will access agentic services through voice discussions with their car.

这无法阻挡其他企业入局。3 月小米推出嵌入手机与汽车的 AI 模型，华为也将入局；车企认为年轻用户将通过车载语音使用代理服务。

重点词汇解析

向上滑动查看更多

THE END