WeChat may have introduced the sending of e-hongbao in China in 2014, but its mother company, e-commerce giant Tencent, is handling more e-hongbao exchanges.
CNBC reported that Tencent handled 8 billion e-hongbao transactions for the 2016 Lunar New Year. Of that number, 420 million took place on Feb. 7, the eve of the start of Spring Festival.
But WeChat's transactions were also rising fast, but not as the same rate as Tencent. In 2014, WeChat handled 5 million e-hongbao transactions in the first two days of the Spring Festival in 2014, but for the entire holiday season, it handled 20 million exchanges. In 2015, its number of exchanges made on New Year's Eve was over 1 billion.
Not to be left behind is Baidu Wallet, owned by the biggest search engine in China, which handled 4.2 billion e-hongbao transactions worth 300 million yuan between Jan. 28 ad Feb. 8, reported TechCrunch.
Using e-hongbao, the digital money-transfer feature of the two companies allows cash transfer from debit cards liked to WeChat accounts. Once the recipient gets the red packet, he must press an "open" button to get the money.
The red packets has been a long-time tradition in China during Lunar New Year. The original tradition was for older members of the family to give younger relatives "lucky money." However, WeChat tapped the popularity of mobile phones among younger Chinese to tweak the holiday practice with its introduction of the e-hongbao which widened the scope of receiving and giving between friends, regardless of who is older or younger.
Now, even the Communist Party of China has joined the fun by giving away 300,000 yuan lucky money by tapping the services of WeChat.
Other Chinese companies, such as Alibaba's digital payment system Alipay, also gave away 800 million yuan worth of lucky money in red envelopes during the Spring Festival Gala which it sponsored.