Alibaba Qianwen Glasses go on sale and top the best-seller list within 3 hours, AI "Hundred Mirror Battle" begins

Haikòng Finance & Securities reporter Guo Jingyu

In recent times, the words “raising crayfish” have gone viral across a wide range of social platforms. The heat brought by AI has spread from software applications to hardware terminals.

On March 8, Alibaba Qianwen AI Glasses G1 series officially went on sale in stock. Just 3 hours after the sale began, it topped the all-platform smart glasses best-seller list, and in some channels, they even sold out in advance. A product officially priced at 2,899 yuan—after stacking government subsidies for consumer goods and various promotions—saw its in-hand price drop to 1,997 yuan and up.

This achievement, without a doubt, has added fuel to the already smoke-filled smart glasses track.

After government subsidies, Qianwen AI Glasses start at 1,997 yuan.

Head-to-head comparison: A hundred schools contend—who will rise to the top?

The smart glasses track is experiencing explosive growth.

According to Omdia’s latest data, in 2025, global AI glasses shipments reached 8.7 million units, a year-over-year surge of 322%. This shows the market’s immense enthusiasm for this new device category.

International Data Corporation (IDC) is even more optimistic about the China market outlook, projecting that in 2026 shipments will reach 4.508 million units, up 77.7% year over year.

The market’s heat has also given rise to an intensely competitive landscape.

As the AI wave sweeps across hardware, this once-blue-ocean segment quickly turned red, taking on a “hundred schools contend” pattern. Currently, brands have already formed clear segmentation in terms of functional positioning and price ranges.

Taking Alibaba Qianwen G1, which topped the chart this time, as an example, its core selling points lie in the deep integration of the Alibaba ecosystem and an AI voice assistant, emphasizing “get things done with one sentence.” After subsidies, it enters the market at a price point below 2,000 yuan, focusing on value for money.

Quark AI Glasses S1 and Qianwen Glasses are both Alibaba-affiliated, but their positioning differs slightly. Quark Glasses place more emphasis on “ultra-fast search and knowledge acquisition,” leveraging Quark Browser’s strong search capabilities, and push “what you see is what you ask.” They are suitable for students, researchers, and users who need to quickly access information, priced at 3,699 yuan.

Rokid (Leqi) Glasses connect to mainstream AI large models and have display, photography, audio, and AI capabilities. They are also more proactive in building an open ecosystem, specifically designed for geeks and professionals who need “see to believe” information assistance, priced at 3,299 yuan.

Other mainstream manufacturers each have their own focus as well. For example, Xiaomi smart glasses deeply link with the Mi Home ecosystem, supporting translation in 89 languages, photo taking, and live streaming—value for money at its maximum, becoming a go-to choice for the general public, priced at 1,799 yuan. Huawei Smart Glasses 2, priced at 1,199 yuan, has the advantage of seamlessly integrating into the Hongmeng ecosystem, and also emphasizes a high-quality audio experience—more like a fusion product of “smart earphones + glasses.”

Overseas brands are not willing to fall behind either. Smart glasses from Meta in collaboration with Ray-Ban, relying on Ray-Ban’s classic design sensibility and Meta’s layout in social and the metaverse field, focus on fashion social interaction and first-person content sharing, but due to adaptation issues, the experience in China is not very good.

In addition, Baidu, Samsung, Leird Bird Innovation to Ideal… tech giants, internet powerhouses, startup brands, and even automakers have all jumped in and released AI glasses products—making the “battle of a hundred glasses” quietly begin.

However, overall, the homogeneity of the core hardware in today’s AI glasses category is becoming increasingly obvious.

The focus of competition has shifted from simply piling up specifications to wearer experience, function compatibility, ecosystem layout, and deep channel cultivation. Different products are quickly adapting to niche scenarios such as commuting, business, and audio-visual use, trying to find an irreplaceable ecosystem position in users’ daily lives.

A Leqi AI smart glasses displayed inside Haikǒu Jingong Eyeglass Store. Reporter Guo Jingyu/Photo

Is it “a scam tax” or “totally worth it”?

Haikòng Finance & Securities reporter Guo Jingyu conducted an on-site visit to offline stores in Haikǒu, including Jingong Eyeglass Store, Xiaomi Home, and Lenovo specialty stores. Among the AI glasses sold, only brands such as Quark, Leqi, and Xiaomi were available. The newly launched Qianwen Glasses have not yet arrived at any physical offline stores in Haikǒu, and the expected arrival time remains to be determined.

At Dr. Eyeglass Store (300622), an authorized partner for Qianwen Glasses, the reporter learned that Qianwen Glasses have already launched offline in-person experience stores in 60 cities nationwide, but mainly concentrated in cities such as Shenzhen, Chongqing, and Nanchang.

In sharp contrast to the booming online sales, Hainan’s offline market is still in its cultivation stage for now.

Inside Jingong Eyeglass Store, sales staff said frankly that consumers’ attitudes toward AI glasses are mostly driven by “curiosity” and “questions.” Many consumers show interest in the highest-configuration versions, but because there are no sample units available in the store, they cannot carry out an intuitive hands-on experience, which to some extent affects their purchasing decisions.

As of the time of publication, Haikòng Finance & Securities reporter’s on-site testing found that Qianwen AI Glasses G1 has abundant supply through online channels such as Taobao and JD.com. National-subsidy qualification and launch discount coupons can both be used normally. Users can even just send “buy Qianwen Glasses” in a conversation on the Qianwen app to jump to the purchase page with one click. This convenient online closed-loop experience precisely makes up for the temporary lack of offline hands-on availability.

However, the nationwide hot sales of Qianwen G1 provide a way to break the deadlock: get out of the mire of hardware specifications and focus on “scenarios.”

Well-known blogger “Lu Ya Lao Bi” shared on social media: Many netizens ask him what equipment a fishing person needs most when they spend all day staring at the water. In the past, he would say it’s a good fishing rod, good line, and good bait; but now it’s a brain that knows how to get things done—a Qianwen Glasses. In the video, he demonstrates the immersive process of fishing for sea bass with Qianwen Glasses. During the fishing process, the blogger keeps talking to Qianwen: “Where is suitable for catching sea bass?” “Is this 10-gram lead sinker hook suitable for catching sea bass?” Even at the moment of landing the catch, he records the spoils through a voice command: “Qianwen, take a photo.” This “hands-free” interaction experience precisely hits the urgent need in a specific scenario.

Official announcements state that starting from the end of this month, Qianwen G1 will be fully integrated with the Qianwen app to achieve “use the glasses to order food, book hotels, and hail rides.” This experience of “what you see is what you get; what you ask is what you can get done” precisely targets two pain points among today’s young people: a “lazy lifestyle” and “high-efficiency work.”

2026 is the first full year after Hainan’s entire island begins full closed-loop operation as a free trade port. The Hainan Province action plan recently issued—Hainan Province to Promote “Artificial Intelligence +” (2026—2028)—clearly sets out the principle of “scenario application driving industrial development.”

Hainan has uniquely rich scenarios such as tourism, health and wellness, duty-free shopping on outlying islands, and financial trade—this is precisely the “test field” where AI glasses most hope to take root.

Wang Peng, deputy research fellow at the Beijing Academy of Social Sciences, analyzes that the dense release of smart glasses reflects the resonance effect among technology, the market, and capital. On the one hand, improvements in AI computing power and breakthroughs in key technologies lower the product development threshold; on the other hand, consumers’ demand for mobile information and the surge in “hands-free liberation” make functions such as real-time translation, navigation, and health monitoring become necessities, driving a market boom.

Whether AI glasses can break away from the simple combination of “Bluetooth earphones + glasses” and avoid becoming nothing more than short-lived electronic toys is something the industry and consumers alike should look forward to.