Lucky Money Goes Digital

By+Zhou+Xiaoyan

Kang Lipo， 30， is an editor for a Beijingbased radio station. Each year， he returns to his hometown Jiaozuo， central Chinas Henan Province， to spend the Spring Festival with his family. However， this year， things are a little bit different.

During this years Spring Festival holiday， which ran from February 18 to 24， Kang spent a large amount of time giving and receiving electronic hongbao， red envelopes filled with money， via WeChat， Chinas most widely used mobile messaging application boasting over 400 million users. The app includes a “random distribution mode” in which a set sum of money is randomly dealt out to ones friends who have to claim it， increasing the excitement of a group of friends fighting over a hongbao.

As the host of a chat room for classmates， Kang invented a rule to turn the game of giving red envelopes online into a relay race—whoever gets the largest amount out of a randomly distributed hongbao is required to give a hongbao 10 times the amount.

“We played the game every day during the holiday. In all， I gave away 639 digital red envelops worth a total 4，484 yuan （$717） and got 444 red envelops worth a total 3，852 yuan（$616）， a sharp rise from last year，” Kang said.“Its a fun and easy way to show a little love and care to people who you otherwise might have ignored. We feel more emotionally connected. We even organized a dinner gathering after the hongbao fight.”

Kang is one of the hundreds of millions of Chinese who celebrated the year of the Goat this way. Giving the “l(fā)ucky money” via mobile apps to celebrate the Lunar New year is enjoying a surge in popularity online. Chinese Internet giants， including Tencent， Alibaba， Sina and Baidu， all released red envelope features to grab a slice of the booming mobile payment market.

tradition goes viral

Giving hongbao to children during the Lunar New year is a long-standing tradition in China. In ancient times， the money was said to have an effect on scaring monsters away. Gradually， envelopes also became symbolic of well wishings for the future.

The game of giving red envelopes online was invented by WeChat during the 2014 Spring Festival in order to gain more mobile payment users. Many Internet companies have followed suit and introduced their own red envelope services this year. Companies also gave cash hongbao or coupon hongbao to promote their products or services as a more targeted marketing technique.

Statistics from WeChat showed that 3.27 billion red envelopes had been sent and received by its users during this years Spring Festival with 1.01 billion of them being exchanged online within 24 hours on February 18. At the peak time， which came in the first two minutes on February 19， as many as 1.65 million red envelopes were opened on WeChat every 60 seconds.

In addition， WeChat teamed up with the China Central Television （CCTv） to give out red envelopes during the CCTv Spring Festival Gala， an entertainment show broadcast on the Lunar New years Eve that has billions of viewers. The gala invited viewers to use “shake”feature on WeChat to get the 500-million-yuan （$80-million） cash hongbao and 3 billion coupon hongbao.

Alipay， the mobile payment system run by Chinas e-commerce king Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.， saw over 100 million people exchange mobile “l(fā)ucky money” during the holiday. The period from February 18， or the Lunar New years Eve， to February 21 was the peak for digital hongbao with a total of 4 billion yuan（$652 million） paid via the e-payment platform， according to figures released by Alipay.

The hongbao war does not only take place among ordinary people but also among Chinas Web giants， who are vying for dominance in the lucrative mobile payment services. Users must bind a bank card to their accounts to send digital hongbao to others， which they can use for future transactions.

Liu ying， a research fellow with the Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies at the Beijing-based Renmin University of China， said the battle over the lucrative mobile payment market is behind the hongbao war.

According to the Peoples Bank of China， the countrys central bank， in 2014， 4.5 billion transactions were made in mobile devices with 23 trillion yuan （$3.7 trillion） in total transaction volume， up 170 percent and 134 percent， respectively.

“During the 2014 Spring Festival， Tencents WeChat was the only one offering digital hongbao services， but this year， major Web giants， including Baidu， Tencent and Alibaba， are all offering such services， in an attempt to grab a bigger share in the promising mobile payment segment.”

“The boom of mobile payment will not only bring convenience to consumers， but also bring opportunities to Internet companies and financial institutions. Moreover， it will facilitate the countrys shift toward consumption-driven economic growth，” Liu said.

Wang Weidong， an analyst at iResearch Consulting Group， said it did not really matter which company won the red envelope competition， because different companies had different goals.

“For Alipay， the red envelope service was an opportunity to improve user loyalty during the festival. For WeChat， it was more about gaining new payment users，” he said.

Double-edged sword

The Spring Festival holiday is supposed to be a period of time exclusively for family reunion. However， as peoples enthusiasm for digital hongbao increased， the proportion of time they spend with family members during the holiday decreases. There has been widespread criticism over digital hongbao that it has alienated family members.

“I used to discuss programs in the Spring Festival Gala with my family members， but this year， I barely had time to watch the gala because I was staring at my cellphone all the time，” said Kang， the 30-year-old radio station editor. “I went to karaoke with my cousins during the holiday， and I was grabbing electronic hongbao the whole time， even when I was singing karaoke！”

“On the last day of the holiday， I started to regret spending too much time on these digital hongbao. Therefore， instead of fighting for hongbao， I watched Tv with my mom that night. I left home feeling so sorry！ I should have spent more time with my parents.”

But Kang said regret came with a sense of fulfillment when he managed to bring classmates closer.

“Next year， I will still play this game， but definitely with less money and for a smaller amount of time，” Kang said.

Dong Chenyu， a teacher at the School of International Journalism and Communication with the Beijing Foreign Studies University， said its unfair to blame hongbao for sabotaging family reunion.

“When television was invented， people accused it of standing in the way of face-toface human interaction. The same accusations came up on telephone and text message services when they were first invented. The same goes with digital hongbao，” Dong said.

“It does nothing but offers a new way of human interaction. The rest is peoples choice. As long as no one expects to earn money from this and takes this as a means of gambling， its a good way to improve human connections，”Dong said.