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Vincent Chow

Ant Group’s new “vibe coding” artificial intelligence app LingGuang has overwhelmed servers after user downloads surpassed 1 million in just four days, hitting the milestone faster than OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Sora, according to the Chinese fintech giant.
The app’s innovative functionality of generating applications in response to users’ text prompts was temporarily suspended on Thursday evening, with the company attributing the issue to excessive usage in a post on Weibo.
As of Saturday, LingGuang occupied the top spot on Apple’s mainland China App Store for free utilities apps and seventh overall for free apps. “This milestone means LingGuang is a key player worth following in the quickly evolving global AI race,” the company said.
Ant Group is an affiliate of Alibaba Group Holding, owner of the Post.
Vibe coding – which allows amateur programmers to create custom software applications – has become one of the most popular applications of generative AI globally.
US-based vibe coding leader Replit, for example, crossed US$100 million in annual recurring revenue in June, up from just US$10 million at the end of 2024.
While Replit and other vibe coding tools use AI to generate code, Ant Group’s LingGuang directly generates the app that users ask for, which provides every user “their own personal AI developer”, according to the company.
After the app is first generated, users then interact with the AI to customise it according to their wishes. So far, users have engaged on average in six rounds of edits per session, exceeding initial expectations, according to LingGuang’s technical lead and former Google engineer Cai Wei.
“It is the industry’s first mobile app that allows users to easily generate and customise apps,” Cai told domestic media on Thursday.

LingGuang also offers users conventional chatbot capabilities with multimodal inputs and outputs. The app is available internationally.
Under development since March, the LingGuang project was overseen by Ant Group chief technology officer He Zhengyu, a PhD graduate from the Georgia Institute of Technology.
Ant Group has doubled down on AI investments this year, including the launch of an “AGI Lab” to accelerate the development of its own cutting-edge AI models.
Alibaba Cloud, the AI and cloud computing unit of Hangzhou-based Alibaba, also recently launched its own flagship AI app Qwen, which is seen as having the potential to become China’s super app in the AI era.
The recent releases of Qwen and LingGuang coincided with the return of Alibaba founder Jack Ma on Tuesday to Ant Group’s Hangzhou campus, almost a year after he endorsed the firm’s AI-first strategy in a rare public speech.
Asked about the relationship between LingGuang and Qwen, Ant Group’s He said the timing of the two releases was “purely coincidental”. He revealed that LingGuang also used Qwen and other open-source Chinese models.
“My view is that we are like comrades working together towards artificial general intelligence,” he told mainland Chinese media on Thursday.


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Artificial intelligence (AI)

Ant Group’s LingGuang vibe coding app hits 1 million downloads in just 4 days

Ant Group’s logo seen at the fintech giant’s headquarters in Hangzhou, in eastern Zhejiang province. Photo: Shutterstock

Examples of apps generated by Ant Group’s LingGuang multimodal AI assistant. Photo: Handout

Alibaba founder Jack Ma visits Ant Group campus as fintech giant ramps up AI efforts

Jack Ma, wearing a white cap, walks alongside Ant Group chairman Eric Jing Xiandong (left) and CEO Cyril Han Xinyi at the fintech giant’s campus in Hangzhou. Photo: Handout

Jack Ma, wearing a white cap, is flanked by Ant Group chairman Eric Jing Xiandong (left) and CEO Cyril Han Xinyi during his walk around the Chinese fintech giant’s campus in Hangzhou, capital of eastern Zhejiang province. Photo: Handout.

Ant Group launches LingGuang AI assistant capable of building simple apps in 30 seconds

The Ant Group logo seen at a trade fair in Beijing. Photo: Reuters

LingGuang is a multimodal AI assistant from Ant Group. Photo: Handout

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Ant International and UBS seek to explore innovations in blockchain-based tokenised deposits. Photo: Handout

At the memorandum of understanding’s signing ceremony in Singapore: (from left) Young Jin Yee, co-head of UBS Global Wealth Management Asia-Pacific and country head for Singapore; Kay Tin Khoo, head of corporate institutional clients Asia-Pacific at UBS; Kelvin Li, general manager of platform tech at Ant International; and Douglas Feagin, president of Ant International. Photo: Handout

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Chinese electronics makers Xiaomi and Meizu will be the first to offer Ant’s AI-based iris verification feature. Photo: Handout

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LingGuang, an AI app that generates custom software applications, sees a surge in popularity


LingGuang, an AI app that generates custom software applications, sees a surge in popularity.


Ant Group’s LingGuang vibe coding app hits 1 million downloads in just 4 days

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}LingGuang, an AI app that generates custom software applications, sees a surge in popularity

LingGuang, an AI app that generates custom software applications, sees a surge in popularity