As part of their own Singles' Day iPhone deals, Alibaba's Tmall, JD.com, and Pinduoduo also provided further iPhone 16 discounts.

Due to fierce competition in China, Apple has seen the prices of its iPhone 16 slashed by as much as 1,600 yuan ($225) at its online store on Alibaba Group Holding's Tmall platform. The US tech giant is hoping to increase sales on Singles' Day, the biggest shopping festival in the world.

As part of its Singles' Day promotion, Apple's Tmall store started offering a 500-yuan voucher for all iPhone 16 price drop models at 8 p.m. on Monday, according to a Tmall statement released on Sunday. The entry-level iPhone 16 model costs 5,499 yuan ($772.23), while the high-end iPhone 16 Pro Max costs 9,499 yuan ($1333.96).

With Tmall's additional trade-in subsidy of up to 1,100 yuan ($154.47), Chinese shoppers can save up to 1,600 yuan ($224.69) on their new iPhone 16 purchases. Alibaba owns the South Chinese Morning Post.

A similar pricing plan for the new iPhone 16 series was also unveiled on Sunday by Alibaba's e-commerce competitor JD.com, which also included a complimentary one-year AppleCare+ membership for the basic or Plus versions.

Pinduoduo, a budget-shopping website, significantly reduced rates on Monday after offering iPhone 16 discounts before Apple's official release on September 20. The price of the well-liked iPhone 16 Pro Max model with 256 gigabytes is currently 9,199 yuan ($1291.83), which is around 800 yuan ($112.35) less than what it originally cost.

The most recent discounts are a reflection of Apple's attempts to make up for the initial lackluster response the iPhone 16 received on Chinese social media, given that Apple Intelligence—the on-device artificial intelligence (AI) system developed by the US company—won't be accessible in Chinese until the following year.