The decision and its purported reasons
The Quark platform, IT之家 reports citing a Sina Technology report that itself relies on informed sources, has reportedly launched a strategic reorganization that includes suspending the recording of videos in which real teachers explain exercises. The news, circulated on November 11, has not been officially confirmed by the company or its leadership and should therefore be treated as a rumor.
According to the same sources, the choice is said to be linked to two factors: making room for Qianwen, Alibaba Group's other artificial intelligence application, and recent changes in the organization's leadership. The material does not specify which executives were involved or how the reorganization concretely affects the two platforms: on this point, the information remains to be verified.
How the discontinued service worked
Before the tightening, Quark offered a service whereby, after photographing an exercise, the user received a written explanation accompanied by a video with a teacher. This content was produced through suppliers that recruited part-time teachers paid on a piecework basis: each exercise was paid according to subject and school level, with an overall monthly compensation. According to a person who had done this work, for the most sought-after subjects in middle and high schools, it was possible to reach almost 10 yuan per individual exercise.
The economic figure helps to understand the scope of the change: this is a production model based on external labor and payment per individual piece of content, not on a fixed number of employees. The suspension, if confirmed, therefore affects a supply chain of external contributors, not only the offering visible to users.
The comparison with Qianwen and the open questions
The picture that emerges from the material suggests growing overlap between the two products. In recent months, Qianwen launched the "Qianwen Xiajiangtang" feature, which simulates a teacher's writing on the blackboard and covers seven subjects across nine years of compulsory education, with particular effectiveness claimed for geometric demonstrations and function analysis. In September, the feature was extended to math, physics, and chemistry exercises for high schools and universities, and it is free.
Qianwen also offers one-on-one voice tutoring, homework correction with immediate feedback on the entire page, error analysis, and the ability to ask questions by photographing an exercise. According to the company, the latter feature includes millions of videos with real teachers, also free of charge. It is precisely this point that makes the meaning of the tightening on Quark more understandable, though not entirely clear: if Qianwen already provides videos of real teachers at no cost to the user, the overlap with Quark's paid per-exercise service appears evident, but the material does not explain how already-produced content will be managed or whether Quark will maintain other forms of video explanation.
The organizational context also remains open: last December, Alibaba created a business unit dedicated to Qianwen for the public, entrusted to group vice president Wu Jia, with the stated goal of making it a "super app" and the first point of user access in the AI era, then extending it to glasses, PCs, and cars. How much this strategic priority weighs on the decision attributed to Quark cannot be verified with the available information; company confirmation and details on the timing and any reassignment of contributors remain to be ascertained.
