RED ENVELOPE GAME FULL
RED ENVELOPE GAME TV

RED ENVELOPE GAME TV

The company claims 100 million users exchanged about 800 million red envelopes via its app during the show, and that it collaborated with 45 sponsors to give away 800 million yuan (about $122 million) to users who played the interactive games - the game required one to shake their phone and collect e-cards according to the instructions on the TV screen. AlibabaвЂ™s online payment product, Alipay, spent about $41 million to replace Tencent as the exclusive sponsor of state-owned CCTVвЂ™s Spring Festival Gala this year, which reached 690 million viewers. What was once an ancient ritual is going through drastic changes: Anyone of any age from anywhere in the country can exchange a red envelope, as long as they have a smartphone.ДЇollowing TencentвЂ™s success in the red envelope game, ChinaвЂ™s two other major internet companies - Baidu and Alibaba - are trying to play catchup. From Lunar New YearвЂ™s Eve to the 15th day of the new year, which usually marks the end of the Spring Festival celebration, families, friends, colleagues in hundreds of thousands of homes, restaurants, and workplaces adopted the new custom. This year, collecting virtual hongbao has become a common scene across China. My mother recalled the frenzy over the phone to me later: вЂњYour rich aunt was very into the game that day - she snatched as hard as I did just for cents!вЂќ A huge flood of messages poured in, most of them notifying me that another red envelope had been opened. Not physically being there put me at a disadvantage: When somebody dropped a red packet, I couldnвЂ™t hear the cue, and all the envelopes were gone within seconds - often before I even realized the game had started. The rules were simple: a number of red envelopes with different amounts inside were created using the вЂњrandom amountвЂќ feature - one contains the highest amount, and the faster you tap the gameвЂ™s вЂњopenвЂќ button, the higher chance youвЂ™ll get one of the bigger payouts. WeChatвЂ™s Red Envelope function crushed the toasts this year. The dishes were almost finished when my mother called and normally it would be the time for toasts - I remember vividly the pressure to go around each table and say something nice to everyone: вЂњI hope you get admitted into a good high schoolвЂќ to a niece вЂњI wish for you to have a white and chubby little girl next yearвЂќ to the newlyweds. He was suggesting other members of the family drop вЂњred packetsвЂќ вЂ“ a function that enables users to transfer a small amount of money, up to 200 yuan (about $31) to multiple users or groups. вЂњThank you bosses,вЂќ read a sticker posted by a cousin on our familyвЂ™s group chat, set up less than a year ago on WeChat, a popular app owned by Chinese internet giant Tencent. Being caught off guard, I muddled through the impromptu new yearвЂ™s greetings to everybody and hung up. It was almost midnight in New York, and I was in my pajamas. She showed me the room, and I realized that all my family members on my fatherвЂ™s side, about 26 of them, were having a big luncheon in the Qilin Palace Restaurant in east Shanghai. It was February 9, the second day of the Chinese New Year, when I answered a video call from my mother. But this yearвЂ™s Spring Festival was different. My mother hadnвЂ™t received any hongbao for the Chinese New Year since she got married in 1988 (if we donвЂ™t count those given to me but taken away вЂњunder her custodyвЂќ).

RED ENVELOPE GAME FULL

Though traditionally associated with the New Year, hongbao can also be given out during big events like weddings or a newbornвЂ™s first full month. In whatвЂ™s said to be a millennium-old ritual, Chinese families give out Lucky Money, or вЂњyasuiqianвЂќ - a small amount of cash these days presented in a red envelope called a вЂњhongbaoвЂќ - to their underage and unmarried members at the start of a new year, hoping to ward off bad luck. She had just cashed in the almost $100 sheвЂ™d accumulated in two hours by tapping the screen on her phone. My mother couldnвЂ™t help grinning from ear to ear.