Alibaba, Baidu Enter AI Glasses Race as China Market Booms
Chinese technology giants Alibaba and Baidu are set to launch their own AI-powered smart glasses in 2025, intensifying competition in a rapidly expanding domestic market inspired by the success of Meta's Ray-Ban smart glasses.
Alibaba's Quark AI Glasses are currently ramping up mass production, although a specific release date has not been finalized, according to sources familiar with the matter. The device is designed to integrate deeply with Alibaba's ecosystem, leveraging its Tongyi Qianwen large language model and connecting to services like the Alipay payment platform, Gaode Maps for navigation, and the Taobao online marketplace.
Similarly, Baidu plans to begin selling its Xiaodu AI Glasses before the end of 2025. The device, first shown at the Baidu World 2024 conference, will feature functions such as first-person video recording, real-time translation, object and calorie recognition, and AI-powered Q&A.
These launches come amid a flurry of activity in China’s smart wearables sector. RayNeo Innovation Technology is scheduled to release smart cinema-style glasses with HDR support on October 23, while INMO Technology recently unveiled its new AI glasses and announced a content ecosystem partnership with Tencent and Ant Group.
The push coincides with explosive growth in China's smart glasses market. According to IDC, shipments in the first half of 2025 exceeded one million units, a 64.2% year-on-year increase, accounting for 26.6% of the global market. Total shipments for 2025 are projected to reach 2.85 million units, a rise of 116.4% from the previous year.
Despite the market's momentum, manufacturers face significant supply chain and production hurdles. Industry analysts note that a shortage of core components and difficulties in mass-producing them are creating supply-side constraints. Furthermore, the high-precision assembly required for lightweight designs has led to low manufacturing yields and increased production costs, posing a challenge for companies trying to scale up to meet rising demand.