Red envelope mania takes off during Spring Festival

BEIJING－Shaking her mobile phone, scanning the Chinese character "Fu" and watching short videos, Zhao Yacong started collecting "lucky money" at least 10 days before Spring Festival－not from her relatives, but from deep-pocketed tech titans.

"It's the seventh time I've participated in such games," the 27-year-old account manager said, adding the fun she derives from such activities is much more than collecting money.

In recent years, Chinese people like Zhao have embraced this new twist on the tradition of handing out red envelopes, or "hongbao" in Chinese, during the Lunar New Year holiday. It started in earnest in 2014 when Tencent made a splash with the digital hongbao service on its popular instant messaging app WeChat.

Since then, other companies have joined, attracting a growing number of players keen to collect lucky money by playing hongbao games in various forms. As of Jan 25, the amount of lucky money handed out by domestic tech firms this year exceeded 8 billion yuan ($1.26 billion).

E-commerce giant JD prepared 1.5 billion yuan of shopping vouchers and commodities since it became the exclusive red-envelope partner of the China Central Television Spring Festival Gala.

It is an opportunity for JD to make full use of the Spring Festival Gala, the most-watched show of the year, to gain new users and increase the brand's influence, said Su Xiaorui, a senior analyst at Analysys. As competition at home heats up, China's tech enterprises are racing to bank on the time-honored tradition.

Alibaba has continued to offer 500 million yuan in lucky money to users who play its game of collecting "five blessings", while short-video platform Kuaishou has been prompting users to play little games in its application to win bonus money that amounts to 2.2 billion yuan.

"The strategy of money for traffic only works in the short term, and companies should offer user-friendly tech products to retain customers," said Su.

"One of the highlights of this year's red-envelope-grabbing activity is that many companies have chosen to integrate traditional culture, the Winter Olympics and other factors into the activity," said Hu Qimu, chief researcher of Tianyi Digital Economy Institute.

Alibaba's "five blessings" offering this year features images of cultural relics related to tigers from 22 museums nationwide, telling stories spanning from the Shang Dynasty (c.16th century-11th century BC) to the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), as a celebration of the Year of the Tiger.

Chinese internet giant Baidu has set up activities to embrace the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic Games and prepared gold ornaments, digital collections and cash as rewards. Hongbao campaigns can spur cultural consumption if participants appreciate the cultural relevance of the process, said Hu.

In recent years, more and more tech firms have integrated their red-envelope activities with traditional Chinese elements such as the legendary monster named Nian, Spring Festival couplets and family dinners.

This year, due to the sporadic resurgence of COVID-19, Zhao has decided to stay in Beijing rather than returning to her hometown around 700 kilometers away in Central China's Henan province. However, she has invited her parents to join in the hongbao-snatching game with her.

"Each time I finish collecting lucky money online, I feel spring is at the door," she said.

Xinhua