TLDR Tech / Founders
Chinese businesses are giving away AI tokens with coffee, credit cards, and dumplings
Tokens are getting so cheap in China that businesses give them away as loyalty rewards. Daily token use there reached 500 trillion this year, up from 100 billion in early 2024. Chinese models cost 60% to 90% less than American ones. China Telecom sells 10 million tokens a month for about $1.40. A Beijing dumpling restaurant hands out more than 100 compute vouchers a day, and a Shanghai bank bundles up to 3 billion Qwen tokens with a credit card, in the slot where airline miles used to go.
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