WeChat cash gifts become virtual reality become

sunny萝卜

The Spring Festival holiday not only saw a peak travel rush but probably a peak cash rush as the tradition of red envelopes moved into the virtual world.

The popularity of WeChat, China’s mobile chat app with more than 600 million users, means that the tradition of giving cash gifts, or “red envelopes” has taken on a strong online dimension.

WeChat launched a new feature allowing users to swap virtual red envelopes. This means users can direct money transfers to individuals, or more interestingly, to put cash up for grabs in a designated chat group.

The sender can then decide how much to give in total - with a ceiling of 200 yuan ($33) per transaction - and to how many people, but leaves it up to the app to allocate the money randomly.

The first two days of Spring Festival saw more than 5 million people nationwide taking part in online red envelope activities, with more than 20 million red envelopes being handed out, the Xinhua News Agency reported.

The report, quoting data provided by Tencent Holdings, developer of WeChat, said the peak of red envelope activity came in a five-minute spell when 585,000 people took part, with 121,000 red envelopes being claimed.

“It was like a game. It brought a fantastic atmosphere and plenty of talking points to the chat group,” said Yang Yi, a 25-year-old who works at a government institution in Beijing.

Yang took part in numerous “competitions” for the red envelope in different chat groups and she managed to get 122 of them, including of course, those that were specifically delivered to her.

Even though the amount ranged from just 0.01 to 100 yuan in each “grab”, she said the fun of the game was in the competition.

Yang said she would sit close to, and monitor, the router in her home each time she knew somebody was going to send an electronic red envelope to ensure the network was up to speed.

“The amount of money does not matter. The excitement lies in the moment you can get the envelope,” she said.

Yang said she got 1,200 yuan from the online red envelopes and distributed it all through red envelopes.

Yao Xuan, manager of a company in Nanjing, Jiangsu province, said he uses electronic payment to replace the traditional way of giving gifts.

He spent 1,300 yuan on four chat groups comprised of classmates from his primary, junior and high schools and college.

"Compared with sending text messages or online posts, this is a better way of wishing good fortune for the coming year,” he said.

sunny萝卜

At new year eve I heard this kind of special way to send red envelopes , but still didn't know how to use it in WeChat , if someone know this , pls help me , tks for advise

sunny萝卜

kobe

WeChat"  what a good English name

雨落风残

It's the first time I have heard WeChat has this feature. By the way, I get to know from this article that the English expression for “微信” is "WeChat". I still believe the application QQ have most of the features of WeChat, except the feature of " having a shake", so I don't quite understand why Tencent developed such an application. Isn't it a waste of resource and money?

sunny萝卜

回复 4# kobe

it's ur first time to heard that?

sunny萝卜

回复 5# 雨落风残


   no no no no~ why don't u think it can save much money and save much time, i think Tencent  use WeChat replace text massage (SMS),QQ don't have ,and not all have QQ ID... In the another hand ,it 's another market strategy (to protect his user  members or user numbers ) to fight with Sina (who created Weibo)... and sometimes for user ,using Wechat  is a safer way to share private photos and information with friends...

雨落风残

回复 7# sunny萝卜


   On the other hand, not "in"

sunny萝卜

回复 8# 雨落风残


   little dust ,forget about it..

雨落风残

回复 9# sunny萝卜


   What do you mean by little dust? I'm very picky about the correct usage of English words and expressions.

sunny萝卜

回复 10# 雨落风残

'
   little dust==my boss always use it ,it's the same meaning with "never mind or not think about it too much"
anyway~if u r too picky about usage , u will be tired of it, i guess, sometimes when we chat ,we seldom to care too much about the way  or construction of expressions ,it can save much time and have fun with talking ,when u can express clearly ,it's ok...