Alibaba's Quark launches AI-powered advanced search feature

Alibaba’s Quark app has launched a new “deep search” function, enhancing search capabilities with reasoning.

Powered by Alibaba’s Qwen AI models, the feature manages complex queries, refines responses through staged online searches, and is available on both mobile and desktop platforms.

This upgrade positions Quark as a competitor in the AI-powered search market.

Quark has gained notable traction since March, becoming the most popular AI app in China, surpassing rivals like ByteDance’s Doubao.

🔗 Source: South China Morning Post

🧠 Food for thought

1️⃣ The race to reimagine search for the AI era

Alibaba’s “deep search” represents a fundamental shift in how search engines operate, moving beyond keyword matching to AI-powered reasoning.

This transition reflects a global change in search behavior, with Apple reporting that Safari searches declined for the first time in 22 years as users increasingly turn to chatbot applications for their queries 1.

Despite this shift, traditional search engines maintain significant advantages in market share. Google recorded 1.63 trillion visits from April 2024 to March 2025, with only a negligible 0.51% decline despite the rise of AI alternatives 1.

Quark isn’t pioneering this approach alone. Chinese startup Moonshot AI had already introduced similar functionality in its Kimi chatbot, showcasing the competitive pressure to evolve search capabilities 1.

The integration of reasoning capabilities with online search represents the natural evolution of search technology that began with simple keyword matching but now aims to understand context, intent, and complexity.

2️⃣ China’s competitive AI app landscape driving rapid innovation

Quark’s meteoric rise to becoming China’s most popular AI application demonstrates the intense competition driving innovation in the market.

The app transformed from a basic cloud storage and search service into an “AI super assistant” with approximately 200 million users, surpassing competitors like ByteDance’s Doubao and DeepSeek in user adoption 2.

Globally, Quark ranks as the sixth most popular AI app by monthly active users according to Andreessen Horowitz, showing significant traction but still trailing behind global leaders like OpenAI’s ChatGPT 2.