A Chinese government propaganda app that recently became a huge hit was developed by Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (阿里巴巴), two people at the company told reporters, at a time when the nation’s tech firms are under global scrutiny over their ties to Beijing.
The name of the Xuexi Qiangguo (學習強國, “Study to make China strong”) app is a play on the government propaganda theme of applying Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) thought. It overtook Tik Tok (抖音) and WeChat (微信) to become the county’s most popular app on Apple’s app store there last week.
It was developed by a largely unknown special projects team at Alibaba known as the “Y Projects Business Unit,” which takes on development projects outside the company, the people said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
New York-listed Alibaba declined to comment on whether the business unit had developed the app.
Beijing propaganda authorities released the app ahead of next month’s Chinese National People’s Congress in Beijing, the country’s top annual legislative gathering.
The app, which includes short videos, government news stories and quizzes, was created by an Alibaba team. Users of Alibaba’s own messaging app DingTalk (釘釘) can use their login credentials to log into Xuexi Qiangguo.
Alibaba said that the app was built using DingTalk’s software.
Staff at the Alibaba unit are responsible for developing and maintaining the app, which includes news, videos, livestream and community comments, according to the sources, as well as a job advertised for Xuexi Qiangguo on Alibaba’s career Web site.
The unit does not have a Web site, but is described in job ads on popular Chinese career Web site Zhipin.com (直聘) as a strategic-level project that is in a creation stage and offers many job opportunities.
At least part of the app’s runaway popularity can be attributed to directives issued by local governments and universities that require people in China’s expansive party member network to download the app.
The app has been downloaded more than 43.7 million times on Apple and Android devices since its launch last month, according to estimates by Beijing-based statistical consulting firm Qimai (七麥).
It was not immediately clear whether Alibaba makes money from the app, or who initiated its development.
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