Queue stretches around building as Tencent boss hands out Lunar New Year bonuses personally
The line led through the building to the office of Ma, who was pictured dressed in a red traditional Chinese jacket and handing out the packets to his employers.
“Ma was born in Guangdong province, and it is a Guangdong tradition for workers to get red packets from their bosses,” an employee told the South China Morning Post.
“Some colleagues arrived several hours early for this. It is something that puts people in a good mood on the first day at work,” she said.
Ma is thought to have given out around 5,000 red packets this morning, according to the staff member. Other managers also gave red packets to their staff.
Compared with many of the electronic red envelopes people have splashed out on online, those that Tencent staff received were not so generous, with staff reporting getting between 10 yuan to 100 yuan.
The Tencent employee said staff did not care how much was in the packets however.
“Many of us waited for a long time in line to get a red envelope from Ma because we don’t always get to see him in the office, and it’s nice to do it at the start of the New Year,” she said.
3.27 billion e-hongbao were sent between February 18 and 23 via WeChat, with more than one billion sent on New Year's Eve alone, according to the company's official Weibo account.
Residents of Guangdong and Zhejiang sent the most digital hongbao, followed by Beijing, Jiangsu Province and Shanghai in fifth place, Tencent said.
WeChat introduced electronic red envelopes last year to great fanfare. This year, several other companies, including Sina and Baidu, followed suit.
“Lucky money” payments worth 1 yuan were the most popular choice overall, with more than 19.5 million 1-yuan e-hongbao sent during the holiday, according to the Xinhua news agency.