Since 2015, WeChat Pay became popular through the Spring Festival Gala red envelopes, and since then, every Spring Festival Internet companies have staged a round of App red envelope wars, Alipay, Douyin, Baidu, Kuaishou, Jingdong, have invested a lot. The exclusive red envelope interaction of CCTV's Spring Festival Gala is of course one of the main focuses, but outside the stage of CCTV, there is a larger red envelope war.
On the night of the Spring Festival Gala, countless people across China will also raise their mobile phones, open apps, and receive red envelopes. Of course, except for the first two years, in fact, the red envelopes that everyone gets from major apps every year are very small, and it is more of an auspicious picture and atmosphere.
However, this year is somewhat special, and the Chinese New Year's Eve is approaching soon, and the exclusive sponsor of the Spring Festival Gala, which has attracted the most attention in previous years, has not been heard from for a long time. Although major apps have methodically launched the Spring Festival Gala red envelope event, the strength of the red envelope is significantly lower than in previous years, and there are more complex gameplay. According to statistics, the total amount of red envelopes in the Spring Festival red envelope activity is 4.3 billion yuan, which is obviously a sharp decline from last year's 12.2 billion yuan.
Alipay: Set five blessings, 500 million
On January 10, Alipay opened the new year's Wufu card activity, and the lottery time is still Chinese New Year's Eve, and all users who collect Wufu will share 500 million red envelopes. This is the eighth year of Alipay's Wufu campaign.
This year's gameplay of Jiwufu is roughly the same as in previous years, users need to collect "harmony, patriotism, dedication, friendliness, prosperity and strength", open the Alipay homepage to see the entrance of Jiwufu.
Figure/Alipay screenshot
The difference is that this year, the five Fuka access is more abundant. Users can get Fuka by sweeping blessings, finding energy, painting New Year paintings, watching live broadcasts, shaking, and doing sports, among which watching live broadcasts, AI painting New Year paintings, and sports are new gameplay this year, and users can participate in activities that divide 500 million red envelopes after collecting Wufu synthesis, and will also get permanent digital collections of the word "Fu".
TikTok: Set 24 solar terms, divided into 200 million
Douyin also adopts the activity form of collecting red envelopes for the Spring Festival Gala, the difference is named after the 24 solar terms, and users need to collect a total of 8 sheets of spring rising, summer summer, autumn equinox, and winter solstice, to obtain the qualification to divide 200 million red envelopes on Chinese New Year's Eve night. In the second stage, collect one of the four seasons of spring, summer, autumn and winter, and all the solar terms cards and 24 solar terms will receive corresponding double rewards.
Figure/TikTok screenshot
The bigger difference is in the gameplay, users need to complete various tasks to get more eligible for the draw, including watching videos of sponsored brands, adding friends, posting videos, etc. In addition, users who prioritize collecting the 24 solar terms card will also have the opportunity to get koi red envelopes, and Douyin also has 200 million red envelopes to attract users to play "mini games" in the app to get.
Kuaishou: "Raise" rabbits, 2 billion
Kuaishou stuffed 2 billion yuan in red envelopes throughout the Spring Festival event, but the gameplay is relatively complicated, and users need to get the number of draws of "rabbit coins" in five scenes - "God of Wealth, New Year's Shooting, Garden Party, Cloud Temple Fair, New Year Koi", "Rabbit Coins" used to buy "Rabbits" upgraded to level 10, and they will get "Big Red Envelopes" to share 2 billion.
Figure/Kuaishou screenshot
In the process of withdrawing "Bunny Coins", you may also get Fuka. This year, Kuaishou will only treat the card collection activity as a sub-project, users must collect 5 cards of "wealth, fortune, joy, fate, and transportation" to divide 200 million red envelopes, in addition to drawing coins to get cards, you can also get more card draws by inviting friends, watching advertisements, etc., and then draw cards.
Little Red Book: Virtual human cultivation, give brand set gifts
Xiaohongshu's current red envelope activities are mainly based on the opening of lucky bags and virtual human gameplay. Users can upgrade the virtual person by removing the lucky bag to extract image costumes and props. After the virtual human is upgraded to level 5, users can participate in the activity of sharing red envelopes, which is also revealed Chinese New Year's Eve. The additional number of times to open the lucky bag requires users to complete interactive tasks on the platform, such as inviting friends and watching live broadcasts.
Picture/Screenshot of Little Red Book
However, this year, Xiaohongshu did not specify the amount of red envelopes in the app, and in addition to red envelopes, some users said that they may draw some set gifts from partner brands.
Baidu: "Good Luck China Year", 300 million
Baidu's red envelopes are also similar, users have to draw cards to get the five words "good, lucky, China, country, year" in order to participate in the activity of sharing 300 million red envelopes in the Chinese New Year's Eve. You can get "words" by chatting with Baidu digital humans, by inviting new users to events, or by using some of the AI features of Baidu App.
AI avatar, picture/Baidu
Specifically, "AI Avatar" uses the AI painting model to capture the proportions of facial features, micro-expressions and key features of the face, generate customized Chinese-style exclusive rabbit avatars, in addition to functions such as AI writing spring couplings and AI sending blessings. In general, the purpose of this year's Baidu red envelope event is quite clear, which is to attract users to experience Baidu's AI functions.
Weibo: Six cards for the Year of the Rabbit, and special red envelopes for enterprises
Weibo also did not specify how many billions of red envelopes to divide, and the gameplay is also a more familiar and simple and direct collection card for ordinary users. Users need to collect six cards of "Rabbit Health, Rabbit Auspicious, Rabbit Good Luck, Rabbit Happy, Rabbit Safe, Rabbit with Love", which can be obtained through daily system tasks, such as check-in, video viewing, Weibo interaction, etc., or through mutual gifts or seeking assistance.
Figure/Weibo screenshot
In addition, Weibo has also cooperated with some brands such as SAIC Volkswagen to launch a customized enterprise card session, where users can complete some customized tasks and participate in additional brand red envelope sharing activities.
The myth of internet growth disappears
There is no doubt that this year, the smell of gunsmoke from the "red envelopes" of Internet giants is very light. And judging from the trend of the past few years, it is clear that large Internet companies no longer regard the Spring Festival Gala red envelope as a must fight place, and the intensity of the red envelope war is weakening every year. Among them, the reason why Internet companies have aggressively "reduced costs and increased efficiency" is also because the Spring Festival Gala and App red envelopes are now not very attractive to Chinese Internet users.
The more core problem is that as the main force of the red envelope war in the past, the Internet giants are becoming less and less meaningful to pull new ones through red envelopes.
According to the data of the seventh national census, there are 1.41 billion Chinese, of which 440 million are children under the age of 15 and the elderly over 65, while the number of Chinese Internet users has approached 1.1 billion. Even among the elderly, the penetration rate of mobile phones and mobile Internet is already high, and there is not much room for growth. What's more, the National Bureau of Statistics said on January 17 that the national population was 850,000 fewer than the previous year at the end of last year.
Figure/Weibo screenshot
The demographic dividend is gone. "New Internet users" are close to exhaustion, and the monthly growth of existing users has also stagnated. According to Quest Mobile data, China's monthly Internet activity has only grown by 23 million people in the past two years, with a compound annual growth rate of less than 1%.
According to the Securities Times, insiders of large factories said that the Spring Festival red envelopes have limited stimulation for new users, and although the platform still does "grab red envelopes" this year, it has not taken the initiative to spread them.
To a certain extent, the Spring Festival Gala Red Envelope War, an Internet "tradition" that began to catch fire in 2015 and continues to this day, has reached the end of its career, and we cannot predict whether there will be this collective activity next year and the year after that, but let's play and cherish it, after all, there is not much time left for it.
Image from Unsplash