Why is it harder to grab red envelopes this year? Plugins are the culprit

The red envelopes developed by the WeChat team in more than 10 days last year became popular all over the country and became a new symbol of the Spring Festival for modern people. Although imitated by Alipay , Weibo and other players, they are ultimately inferior to them. Relying on the big tree of WeChat, WeChat red envelopes are almost synonymous with red envelopes, far surpassing other competitors in terms of gameplay, experience and fun. Unfortunately, for most people, this year's Spring Festival WeChat red envelopes have only one impression: they can't be grabbed.

WeChat red envelopes are hard to grab, and “old hands” often fail

Many of the groups I am in are people from the technology industry. The group members can be regarded as the first batch of users of WeChat red envelopes. Their enthusiasm for sending and grabbing WeChat red envelopes is much higher than that of ordinary users. However, in the past few days, I have seen many group members lamenting that it is difficult to grab red envelopes this year. I feel the same way. Just like last year, I spent the New Year at home in Guangzhou. I have a 10M broadband and the network is not a problem, but once a red envelope was sent, it was snatched up almost within a second. Last year, even if you waited a few seconds before taking action, the chance of hitting was quite high. More people are sending, but fewer people are grabbing.

In order to answer this question, I began to observe the users who grabbed different red envelopes. In many lists, there was a friend who could always grab the red envelopes at the first time. This friend told me the truth: he used a red envelope plug-in, which not only supports Android , but also can be adapted to jailbroken iOS devices. However, this kind of "side door" application is not worthy of being in the mainstream, and it cannot be found in the App Store. This plug-in can automatically grab red envelopes for any group, so that you will not miss any red envelopes when you are sleeping or eating, and will give you detailed statistical reports afterwards to report the results to you.

Now everyone should have a preliminary understanding of why it is difficult for them to grab red envelopes. You can't compete with machines in speed, and this plug-in can be effective for multiple groups in parallel. Do you feel that red envelopes are not very interesting? Originally, it was a game with simple, clear and equal rules. Now the rules have been broken by some plug-ins, and the fun of the game is gone. Although you won't get rich by grabbing red envelopes, and it is very likely that you will send out more red envelopes than you grab, but with the existence of such a plug-in, I feel three words: boring.

It's not just the plugins that are causing the trouble. Two reasons make red envelopes less interesting

Existence is reasonable. There are more than one red envelope grabbing plug-in, including the "crazy red envelope grabbing" plug-in developed by relatively well-known companies such as PP Assistant (acquired by UC). What's more interesting is that the red envelope grabbing plug-in requires jailbreaking, and the core competitiveness of PP Assistant is the application distribution for jailbroken iOS devices. When installing the "Pangu jailbreak" software, PP Assistant is installed and promoted. Interestingly, UC has married Alibaba. Now it seems that Alibaba's own red envelopes cannot compete with WeChat, but it can use plug-ins to ruin the WeChat red envelope ecosystem.

However, upon careful analysis, plug-ins are probably not the only reason why it has become difficult to grab red envelopes.

First, the network gap is getting smaller. Last year, some people thought it was easy to grab red envelopes, because most people went back to their hometowns for the New Year, and the network environment was a major flaw. If the network was not strong, even if you ran to the top of the mountain, the high-speed WIFI would have been grabbed. An obvious difference this year is that 4G has begun to become popular. The latest data released by China Mobile shows that the number of 4G users has exceeded 100 million (the number of 4G users of China Unicom and China Telecom can be ignored), which is already a considerable number. The number of 4G base stations has exceeded 700,000, and 4G has begun to cover third-, fourth-, fifth- and sixth-tier cities. Even some urban-rural fringe areas can already search for 4G signals. 4G users are no longer held back by the network when grabbing red envelopes. Everyone's network is similar, so grabbing red envelopes is of course more difficult.

Second, the phenomenon of more people and less porridge is becoming more and more obvious. Last year, red envelopes were still a game played by a small circle. The official data released by WeChat was 8 million. Although there may be some reservations, the relatively low-end and general users around me, such as uncles and aunts, really don’t know what WeChat red envelopes are. This year is very different. First, WeChat has been cultivating the habit of red envelopes through methods such as Didi red envelopes this year. Second, QQ, Baidu, Alibaba, and Weibo have all tried to promote red envelopes. Third, traditional media such as CCTV have begun to help promote mobile phone red envelopes, especially this year’s Spring Festival Gala, which directly cooperated with WeChat red envelopes and QQ red envelopes, calling on everyone to grab red envelopes. More people are grabbing red envelopes, but many of the additional users are in a mentality of picking up bargains. The probability of sending red envelopes, especially large red envelopes, is very small. Take my friends around me as an example. Those who send red envelopes and large red envelopes are still the same group of people as last year, but there are a lot more people grabbing red envelopes.

Plugins, 4G and increasing popularity are all reasons why WeChat red envelopes are difficult to grab. But the "culprit" is obviously the plugin.

How to deal with plugins? Alipay red envelope or verification code?

WeChat red envelopes have become a part of the Spring Festival. Many people lament that it disrupts the atmosphere of the New Year. They should have spent time with their families, but instead the whole family was staring at their phones to grab red envelopes. Even family members exchanged red envelopes with each other... Even this year's Spring Festival Gala was reserved for red envelopes. From this point of view, the WeChat red envelope plug-in also has positive significance. After turning it on, we can spend time with our families. However, I think that mobile phones are infiltrating and affecting all of our lives, and red envelopes are just one of the ways. If you can't avoid it, just enjoy it.

It is worth thinking about how to deal with WeChat red envelope plug-ins.

One possibility is that everyone is rushing to install red envelope plug-ins, and as a result, red envelopes are really being played out.

The most direct way to deal with it is to send red envelopes in a targeted manner! Point-to-point is not afraid of red envelope plug-ins. I guess this is what many people think...

Another possibility is that WeChat has started blocking measures. After the launch of red envelopes last year, Cheetah Browser was the first to launch a red envelope browser plug-in. At that time, it only had a reminder function and was only effective for the web version of WeChat. WeChat immediately made the Cheetah Red Envelope Assistant incompatible with the web version of WeChat. Next, WeChat can also take technical measures to block red envelope plug-ins, such as using verification codes for users who frequently grab packets at high speed. Of course, this will make the entire red envelope experience more complicated, and simplicity is the biggest advantage of WeChat red envelopes, and it is also the disadvantage of Alipay red envelopes and Weibo red envelopes.

In order to resist red envelope plug-ins, a group I belong to has called for the adoption of Alipay red envelopes, because although entering a password to grab a red envelope is a bit complicated, it is relatively fair for everyone to enter it manually, and it is basically a string of verification codes. In this way, Alipay red envelopes have a slight advantage over WeChat red envelopes due to their "complexity". Unfortunately, some people have said that automatic plug-ins for Alipay red envelopes have been released... Sometimes, technical guys are also hateful. But it's just for fun, you lose if you verify:)

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.