Chinese artificial intelligence developers are competing for paying users on Alibaba’s Tmall, where subscription plans for AI models are now being sold alongside smartphones, skincare and luxury fashion brands.
Beijing-based Z.ai (also known as Zhipu AI) kicked off the move last week by opening an online storefront selling subscriptions to its GLM Coding Plan. A day later, Tmall launched an “AI Space Station,” a central marketplace where users can buy AI subscriptions, top up tokens and purchase specialised packages from Alibaba Cloud, Z.ai, MiniMax and DeepSeek.
People familiar with the matter said Moonshot AI, developer of the Kimi K3 model, and MiniMax were in talks to open official flagship stores on the e-commerce platform, as developers look for new channels to convert rising user numbers into recurring revenue.
Tmall marketplace draws early consumer response
Early signals have been positive: within 48 hours of Z.ai opening its storefront, transactions involving AI tokens and subscription products across Taobao and Tmall jumped by more than 160 percent, a Tmall spokesperson said on Monday.
The digital marketplace packages cutting‑edge AI services in a consumer format similar to topping up a prepaid mobile phone plan. While Alibaba Cloud and Z.ai operate their own storefronts on the platform, packages for Kimi, MiniMax and DeepSeek are currently sold through third‑party vendors.
By placing access to models on digital retail shelves, Chinese developers are turning software subscriptions into everyday retail products and could become less reliant on direct website sales.
Poe Zhao, a China technology analyst and founder of Hello China Tech, said Tmall provides a more efficient channel to acquire paying users but carries a trade‑off, making developers “more dependent on traffic controlled by the platform.”
