WeChat, QQ, Taobao, Alipay, Xiaomi... Here is a guide to 2018 Spring Festival red envelopes

As the 2018 Spring Festival approaches, the "red envelope war" between Internet giants has once again begun.

On February 5, QQ and Alipay held a media communication meeting in Beijing at the same time, announcing new ways to play with red envelopes in 2018; at the same time, Taobao also announced on the same day that it had reached an exclusive interactive cooperation with the 2018 CCTV Spring Festival Gala. Judging from the amount of investment alone, the marketing investment of the three manufacturers in the Spring Festival red envelopes was more than 100 million yuan.

Counting the milestones of the past Spring Festival red envelopes, whether it was the 200 million WeChat payment card bindings in 2015 through red envelopes, or Alipay's "monopoly" on the CCTV Spring Festival Gala stage in 2016. Behind the "red envelope war" in the 2014-2016 period, it was actually a fight among Internet giants for market share in the mobile payment field.

Nowadays, WeChat Pay and Alipay have basically completed the basic layout of domestic mobile payment, and the smoke of the "red envelope war" has also become less intense. In 2017, Zhang Xiaolong, the "Father of WeChat", said at the WeChat Open Class that WeChat would not launch red envelope marketing activities during the Spring Festival; and at the communication meeting between QQ and Alipay yesterday, the relevant persons in charge of the two companies also expressed the same attitude towards the so-called "red envelope war".

"We have been doing the Spring Festival red envelope business for four years. The most important thing is to let users have fun, which cannot be measured by money," said Yin Yu, vice president of Tencent.

"For the New Year, exchanging lucky cards with friends and relatives who have not seen each other for a long time has become a topic to bring them closer. As for the bonus, it is just for fun and no one cares too much about it anymore," said Guanhua, project manager of Alipay's Five Blessings Collection project.

For users, grabbing red envelopes online has become a new custom in the mobile era. For Internet companies, even if they no longer have to spend a lot of effort on mobile payment, the seven-day Spring Festival holiday and the festive atmosphere of the Lunar New Year are also good opportunities for brand and product promotion. Titanium Media has also compiled a guide for Internet companies to get red envelopes during the 2018 Spring Festival, hoping to help you get a good start during this festive season.

QQ: If you want to get 200 million red envelopes, you need to "take a few steps out"

In 2017, with the popularity of Pokemon Go, the gameplay of QQ Red Packet also focused on offline, guiding users to receive red packets from friends and merchants through the interactive method of "LBS+AR+Red Packet". This year, QQ Red Packet still continues the offline main scene, but the way to obtain red packets has been changed to "sports".

QQ will distribute 200 million "lucky red envelopes" during the Spring Festival, which can be played in two ways. On New Year's Eve, all users can view the total number of steps accumulated in "QQ Sports" throughout 2017 and receive red envelopes. From the first to the third day of the New Year, users can exchange their steps for a chance to draw red envelopes.

Since the first three days of the Lunar New Year are the peak periods for going out to pay New Year's greetings and visiting relatives and friends, from 9:00 am to 11:50 pm every day from the first to the third day of the Lunar New Year, users can pull down the QQ conversation list on their mobile phones at any time, or participate in the draw for lucky red envelopes through the "QQ Sports" entrance.

During the event, users can also enter the event through the widget entrance in the upper right corner of the mobile QQ interface at 12:00-13:00, 17:00-18:00, and 22:00-23:00 every day. Users can get a chance to draw a red envelope every 100 steps, and can exchange for a maximum of 100 red envelopes every day.

From New Year's Eve to the eighth day of the first lunar month, mobile QQ also launched "limited edition co-branded red envelopes" for users' personal red envelopes. When users send QQ red envelopes to friends, they can choose brand-exclusive personal red envelopes, including Ferrari, BURBERRY, KENZO, and YSL beauté.

In addition, QQ also released the "2017 Chinese Sports Report" on the spot, which showed that in 2017, the average Chinese person walked 5,678 steps per day, an increase of 566 steps from 2016, and the health awareness of the Chinese people is gradually increasing. The Chinese people's exercise during the Spring Festival needs to be improved. During the Spring Festival in 2017, the average number of steps per day was only 5,217, and on the first day of the Lunar New Year it was even lower, 5,016 steps, the highest number of steps per person in the whole year.

"QQ Lucky Red Packet not only encourages people to simply move around, but also hopes that through the action of 'walking', everyone can visit relatives and friends, broaden their horizons and exercise during the Chinese New Year." said He Yang, general manager of the QQ Pay Joint Product Department of Tencent's Social Network Business Group.

Alipay: Collecting "Five Blessings" for three consecutive years, not for money but for fun

From 00:00 on February 6 to the night of New Year’s Eve, Alipay’s “Collect Five Blessings” activity will start again.

In 2017, the whole nation prayed for "Diligence Blessings"; in the second year, 168 million people collected all five blessings and received 1.2 yuan per person. This year is the third year of Alipay's "Collect Five Blessings" activity. In the view of Guanhua, the person in charge of Alipay's "Collect Five Blessings", the "money" attribute of the five blessings has gradually faded. Compared with the 1.2 yuan per person reward on New Year's Eve last year, users are more concerned about the excitement of the process of collecting blessing cards and the symbol of good omens for the next year after collecting all the blessings.

The "AR Scanning Blessings" that was popular among users last year will continue to be the main way to get blessing cards this year. On this basis, Alipay has upgraded the AR gameplay. Not only scanning the blessing characters, but also "scanning gestures" can also get blessing cards. Users only need to open "AR Scan" and let their relatives and friends make the "Five Blessings" gesture in front of the phone camera to have a chance to get a blessing card.

Guanhua said that the design of this game is mainly to hope that everyone will not just look down at their phones during the Chinese New Year, but interact more with their families face to face to add to the atmosphere of joyful reunion during the Chinese New Year.

In addition to the two AR gameplays, users have two other ways to get blessing cards, namely "watering Ant Forest" and "donating golden eggs to Ant Farm". Guanhua said that it hopes to encourage users to collect the five blessings and increase their blessings while also having a green, environmentally friendly and loving Spring Festival.

WeChat: Focus on offline, pilot "gold + phone bill" red envelope

As the most active "red envelope" product, WeChat red envelopes will not have a separate online marketing campaign. However, at the 2018 WeChat Open Class Pro, Zhang Xiaolong said: "Exploring wonderful offline life is an important plan for WeChat next." This year's WeChat New Year series of activities will focus on offline.

As WeChat Pay has basically achieved coverage of mainstream scenarios at home and abroad, throughout February, WeChat will combine red envelopes and payment products, through interactions such as "Nearby Discounts" and "Shake Music", and take advantage of the lightweight, ready-to-use experience of mini-programs to provide users with interactive experiences and discounts in all aspects of food, clothing, housing and transportation.

Through "Shake and Play", users can participate in the lottery through the mini program after shopping at designated merchants, and can get a 200 yuan bill free of charge, and have the opportunity to receive a random amount of red envelopes without threshold in the store. "Nearby Discounts" is a Spring Festival discount activity launched by WeChat in collaboration with well-known merchants and brands. Users can scan the "Nearby Discounts" mini program code in the store to quickly view and receive Spring Festival coupons from merchants and brands.

In addition to the offline layout, WeChat is also continuing to promote the pilot of the "Golden Red Packet" during the Spring Festival. Currently, it has conducted a grayscale test of the "Golden Red Packet" for some users in the [WeChat Wallet-Limited Time Promotion] column.

This year, Tencent has prepared many new ways to play with the gold red envelopes, and it can be said that it is ready to spend gold generously:

1. Open the [WeChat Wallet-Limited Time Promotion] entrance, which is an important strategic entrance. Previously, only a few products such as Mobike and Starbucks could enter it.
2. During the Spring Festival, all users who send gold red envelopes with a certain amount of money can participate in the draw of 5g gold bars. Each person will have more than one chance to draw a prize every day. According to the real-time price, 5g of gold is about 1,300 yuan. It is said that the number of gold bars is about 10,000, provided by the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China.
3. During the Spring Festival, Micro Gold can be bought 24/7, making it convenient for everyone to send gold red envelopes. You should know that gold can only be traded on weekdays.
4. During this year's Spring Festival, Tencent Golden Red Envelopes will work with businesses to send gold red envelopes to users.

In addition to the golden red envelopes, Tencent also launched another new form of red envelopes during the Spring Festival - "phone bill red envelopes".

Users can enter the mini program [Send Red Packet Fees to Friends] through WeChat, enter the total amount of the red packet, select the friends to send it to, and finally click Pay to successfully send it. After that, the phone fee will be directly transferred to the user's personal mobile phone account, without any operator restrictions, whether you are a China Unicom, China Mobile, or China Telecom user.

As a new product launched in 2017, [Call Fee Red Packet] also combines face recognition technology, allowing users to upload photos to generate exclusive avatars. In addition, you can also use the [Intimate Recharge] function to recharge the mobile phones of your parents, relatives and friends.

Taobao: Won the exclusive cooperation with Spring Festival Gala, one person wins the prize and the whole family wins

On February 5, Taobao announced an exclusive interactive cooperation with the 2018 CCTV Spring Festival Gala. During the Spring Festival, it will distribute cash red envelopes totaling more than 1 billion yuan, allowing consumers to grab red envelopes while watching the show. On New Year's Eve, Taobao will also launch 600 million Spring Festival Gala red envelopes and prizes during the broadcast of the CCTV Spring Festival Gala.

Through cooperation with Taobao, this year's CCTV Spring Festival Gala will add new highlights such as cross-screen interactive red envelope grabbing, big data red envelope family map, and Spring Festival Gala star special programs. During the CCTV Spring Festival Gala, users can enter Taobao on their mobile phones according to the host's oral instructions to get the New Year's lucky bag.

It is understood that the New Year's lucky bag contains not only cash red envelopes, but also privileges for purchasing goods for 1 yuan, and the prizes include many items such as home digital appliances and accessories. In the process, if you follow the prompts and bind your Taobao family account, if one person wins the prize, the bound family members will also win the prize, thus doubling the prizes.

During the entire Spring Festival (February 11-15), Taobao will launch the "Everyday Red Packet" event, during which cash red packets worth more than 1 billion yuan will be shared. During the event, consumers only need to open Taobao on their mobile phones to get 3 red packets to be opened. After sharing with other users according to the corresponding prompts, both the sharer and the invitee have the opportunity to receive cash red packets.

Xiaomi: 2 million red envelopes to encourage users to share routers

Compared with Internet companies with social and e-commerce attributes, red envelope marketing can effectively activate users' online activity, thereby achieving the goal of traffic conversion. However, in this year's red envelope war, hardware manufacturer Xiaomi *** appeared and combined the red envelope activity with offline physical routers.

In June last year, Xiaomi Router launched the "sharing" mode. After the user activates the sharing function on the router APP, a new secondary guest network of Xiaomi shared WiFi will be created. Other users can click to connect to the WiFi, pay the fee and start surfing the Internet. The router owner can make money by sharing the router.

The red envelope game of Xiaomi router this time is related to this sharing mode. The specific gameplay is: users can get red envelope rewards after turning on the shared Xiaomi router WiFi function; if the function is kept turned on continuously, red envelopes can be received every three days, that is, as long as the user keeps the function turned on, red envelopes will be issued continuously.

During the upcoming Spring Festival, Xiaomi will distribute up to 2 million red envelopes to users: still every three days, namely: January 31, February 4, February 8, February 11 (the 26th day of the twelfth lunar month), February 15 (New Year's Eve), February 19 (the fourth day of the Lunar New Year), February 23 (the eighth day of the Lunar New Year), February 27 (the twelfth day of the first lunar month), and March 2 (Lantern Festival).

From the 26th day of the twelfth lunar month (February 11) to the Lantern Festival (March 2), the number of red envelopes distributed per day will gradually increase. On February 15, which is New Year's Eve, the number of red envelopes distributed by Xiaomi will exceed 500,000.

It can be said that through the Spring Festival red envelopes, an activity that everyone can participate in, Xiaomi hopes to increase users' willingness to share routers with 2 million red envelopes, and even boost the sales of Xiaomi routers, so that users who participate in the activity can also earn good income. According to the money-making list published by Xiaomi, there are users on each list who earn 400 to 500 yuan per month.