QQ is openly building its defenses while Alipay is secretly making moves. Who will win in this year's red envelope battle?

Will the three-year Spring Festival red envelope war enter a lull in the Year of the Rooster? First, Alipay hinted that there would be no red envelope war this year after the "circle" incident. Then Zhang Xiaolong, president of the WeChat business group, publicly stated that there would be no WeChat red envelope marketing activities this year. The Spring Festival Galas of major TV stations also lacked sponsors from mobile payment...

However, as the Spring Festival approached, the development of events took a turning point.

On January 11, Tencent announced three major ways to play with QQ red envelopes during the 2017 Spring Festival, and will invest 250 million yuan in cash to "take over" WeChat and become the main force in the red envelope war.

Then on January 13, Alipay stated that it would continue the "Collect Blessings" red envelope game, and the amount of the red envelopes reached 200 million yuan in cash. It is obvious that it has not given up this red envelope war.

Coincidentally, both QQ and Alipay have started using AR red envelopes, setting the tone for this year's red envelope battle. I believe that with the entry of players such as Baidu and Weibo, the red envelope war in the Year of the Rooster is bound to break out.

Attack or exit, mobile payment has the same goal in different ways

I still remember that during the Spring Festival in 2015, WeChat achieved card binding of 200 million users in two days thanks to the red envelope war, and became the second largest payment platform in China after Alipay. During the Spring Festival of 2016, there was a melee among QQ, WeChat, Alipay, Baidu, Weibo and other parties.

It is not difficult to understand why WeChat has begun to consider withdrawing this year. Three consecutive years of red envelope wars have already realized WeChat’s payment dream, and WeChat red envelopes have long become one of the user habits. But WeChat’s departure does not mean that the red envelope war will disappear, especially when QQ continues to exert its efforts and Alipay fights back urgently. The significance of the red envelope war has not been lost, but the protagonists on the battlefield have changed.

On the one hand, online red envelopes have long become one of the "traditional customs" of the Spring Festival. Perhaps when online red envelopes first appeared in 2014, there was still a lot of resistance in public opinion. In 2015, the criticism became even more intense, and even escalated to a discussion of folk customs. We seem to have underestimated the penetration of the Internet. In just three years, online red envelopes have become an indispensable element of the festival. Group sending of red envelopes to friends and relatives, grabbing red envelopes while watching the Spring Festival Gala, and using red envelopes to wish each other a happy New Year have long become typical life scenes. There is reason to believe that even if all social platforms stop planning and marketing related to Spring Festival red envelopes, online red envelopes will still become an important element of the Spring Festival. Of course, for social platforms or payment platforms whose mission has not yet been completed, the opportunity of the Spring Festival cannot be missed.

On the other hand, QQ’s ambition for mobile payment is self-evident. After WeChat successfully broke through, QQ naturally became the target of Alipay’s attack. From Alipay's perspective, in order to get rid of being just a payment tool , it has made many scenario-based attempts in recent years, especially in 2016, from redesigning to embrace social networking to launching the circle function. Although it has attracted a lot of criticism, it is not difficult to develop Alipay's desire for social networking. It is not difficult to find that in the first echelon of this year's red envelope war, QQ wanted to surpass the success created by WeChat, and Alipay finally chose to face the challenge head-on after secretly making moves. Red envelopes are still an important scenario for mobile payments. They are indispensable for both QQ and Alipay, and are also the fuse of the red envelope war.

It is true that QQ and Alipay became new players in the red envelope battle in the Year of the Rooster, but the two sides did not continue the previous money-burning battle. Instead, they rationally moved the track to the battle of gameplay.

QQ and Alipay, who is the protagonist in the red envelope war?

As mentioned earlier, AR real-life red envelopes have become the focus of this year's red envelope battle. However, one is a social platform with more than 800 million active users, and the other is a payment platform that occupies more than half of the mobile payment market share. Who do you think will win in this red envelope war? Perhaps we need to make a judgment based on the gameplay.

Simply put, the gameplay of QQ Spring Festival red envelopes can be summarized as "search", "swipe" and "scan".

• The more official name of "Find It" is "LBS+AR" red envelopes falling from the sky, that is, after users enter the AR real-life map, they can randomly grab cash red envelopes and card coupons based on the LBS geographic location, or they can hide red envelopes in specific locations and invite friends to find them.
• "Swipe" continues the gameplay of QQ red envelopes during last year's Spring Festival. You can have a chance to get a red envelope by simply pulling down and refreshing the chat page. According to last year’s data, on New Year’s Eve, global QQ users refreshed their accounts a total of 189.4 billion times, covering 308 million users. This shows the strength of this year’s update.
• "Scan" is an upgraded version of face-to-face red envelopes, which allows you to stuff red envelopes into them and share them with friends in the form of QR codes. Even if the two parties are not friends, they can still receive the red envelopes by scanning the QR code. In the past, red envelopes only existed in online social networking, but face-to-face red envelopes broke this limitation.

Compared with the playability and fun of QQ red envelopes, this year's Alipay red envelopes are jokingly called Jingyefu's "debt repayment" move. AR technology is also used in the gameplay.

The AR red envelopes that have been launched are similar to the QQ hidden red envelopes, except that AR elements have been added to the "Five Blessings" gameplay. The word "Fu" in the picture can be recognized through the scan function of Alipay, and then the blessing card can be received. In order to increase user participation, you can also receive lucky cards by watering the trees for your friends in the Ant Forest. In addition, in terms of fun, Alipay has added the "Universal Blessing" and "Steal" cards, and implanted certain game elements.

It can be seen that in terms of the way to obtain red envelopes, Alipay's approach is more single-minded, while QQ has fully utilized its own social advantages. From the perspective of target groups, Alipay is more like a red envelope event for all the people, while QQ is more inclined towards people born in the 1990s and 1995s. After all, during last year's QQ red envelope Spring Festival event, users born in the 1990s and 1995s accounted for a total of about 75%, which still has certain differences.

The red envelope war is no longer pure, but more vital

In fact, since 2016, more and more marketing elements have begun to appear in the red envelope war, and the actual participants have become more diversified. In addition to the competition for payment entrances, the red envelope war has been given more significance.

For example, the role of AR red envelopes in attracting traffic and promoting sales . The emergence of Pokémon Go has made AR technology all the rage, and the value of AR in marketing is widely anticipated. Currently, partners participating in QQ red envelopes include brands such as PepsiCo, Watsons, and Supercell. Alipay has also welcomed partners such as Coca-Cola, Procter & Gamble, Uniqlo , and Ele.me. In terms of specific numbers, the participation of these partners added gift certificate packages worth 3 billion yuan to QQ red envelopes, and Alipay also provided 30 million coupons.

For example, tools that connect celebrities and fans . Since joining the red envelope war in 2015, QQ Red Envelopes has introduced celebrity red envelopes. This year, many new gameplays have been added, including celebrity AR red envelopes, celebrity card collection and photo taking, and celebrity red envelope rain. As a social platform where young people gather, QQ has become an important channel for communication and interaction between celebrities and fans, and a core part of Tencent's pan-entertainment layout.

Another example is opening up new potential for offline scenarios . After the emergence of AR technology, it is seen as a new entry point to connect users with offline scenarios. Compared with shaking, scanning QR codes, etc., it has the advantage of more interesting and natural offline interactions. QQ and Alipay's choice of AR red envelopes has revolutionary significance for the market education and offline preaching of AR technology. Not only is it highly interactive advertising marketing, its value in scene linkage will be further highlighted in the future.

In the past three years, online red envelopes have made WeChat and QQ’s payment dreams come true and made up for Tencent’s shortcomings in the field of mobile payments. In 2017, the gameplay of the Spring Festival red envelopes was more innovative and the participants were more diverse, achieving a win-win situation for the platform, merchants and users, and actively testing the application of new technologies. Compared with three years ago, the red envelope war is no longer pure, but more vital.

In general, in this year's red envelope war, QQ showed a massive offensive momentum, and Alipay still chose to actively fight back after hesitating for a long time. The red envelope war is still very interesting, especially QQ's active preparations. It is not difficult to find its ambitions in payment, marketing, AR, etc. After this battle, it may be a new watershed in the fields of social and payment.

Mobile application product promotion service: APP promotion service Qinggua Media advertising

The author of this article @Alter compiled and published by (Qinggua Media). Please indicate the author information and source when reprinting!