Qwen3.6-Plus, based on my actual testing, clearly outperforms MiniMax M2.7 and is more multimodal. However, this time there aren't as many AI bloggers giving glowing reviews because Alibaba has cut off their supplies.

Probably because Alibaba's recent financial report issues led to a cut in their promotional budget. Honestly, that's the right move. They should have relied on real strength to win. When Qwen3.5 was released, they poured a lot of budget into hype and exaggerated claims, but the actual performance was a complete disaster.
Alibaba's current strategy has shifted to:
- Small models, small size, Qwen3.5 fully open-sourced immediately
- Medium models, Qwen3.6-Plus performance surpasses MiniMax M2.7, likely to delay open-sourcing, mimicking other three domestic models
- Flagship models, Qwen max series, closed source
Qwen3.5-Plus to Qwen3.5-Max is about a one-month interval. After Qwen3.6-Plus is released, it might reclaim the top spot among domestic models. Meanwhile, DeepSeek V4 is also coming out, along with updates to other domestic models. Currently, they are 1-2 months behind schedule. Once other companies switch to closed source, catching up with Qwen won't be difficult because the biggest bug in domestic models, (distillation), has been blocked by Claude. Distillation was very fast at the start, with significant improvements, but now it depends on each company's hardware capabilities.