Alibaba unveils Quark AI glasses in China to challenge Meta’s lead in wearables

Quark glasses start at 1,899 yuan and run on Alibaba’s Qwen AI, offering a regular eyewear design

Alibaba released on Thursday its new Quark artificial intelligence glasses in China, heralding the Chinese tech company's efforts to break into the AI wearables market dominated by Meta.

Prices will start from 1,899 yuan ($268.25) for the headset that will be powered by Alibaba's Qwen AI model and app. Unlike other headsets made by the likes of Meta, the Quark glasses look like regular eyewear, with a black plastic frame.

Alibaba said the glasses would be deeply integrated with its apps, including Alipay and its shopping site Taobao, with wearers able to use them for tasks such as on-the-go translation and instant price recognition.

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"Alibaba's strengths are shopping, payments and navigation, so its AI glasses function more like a life assistant," Li Chengdong, a Beijing-based electronics industry analyst said. The company is pushing into the consumer AI market after having historically lagged rivals. Earlier this month it launched a major upgrade to its AI chatbot.

Li said Alibaba's strategy for AI glasses includes a focus on capturing future traffic entry amid intense competition in China's e-commerce sector."Alibaba is not a monopoly in e-commerce," he said. "It hopes AI can help it secure the next-generation traffic gateway."

The new Quark AI glasses are available on major Chinese e-commerce platforms including Tmall, JD.com and Douyin. Sales figures are not yet available, as the product only officially launched on Thursday.

The race to find new forms of devices for entertainment and computing, underpinned by AI, has fueled a battle among the biggest technology companies. Instagram-owner Meta overwhelmingly dominates the VR headset industry with about an 80% market share.

Apple sells its Vision Pro headset while Samsung Electronics released its Galaxy XR extended reality headset in October that uses AI features from Alphabet's.

Other Chinese tech companies have also launched similar AI-powered glasses. Xiaomi launched a product in June, while Baidu already has a similar product for sale.