Get lucky this Spring Festival: WeChat adds sexy twist to red-envelope giving via mobile ahead of Chinese New Year
Users of Tencent’s WeChat app will soon be able to send virtual packets of cash to unlock blurred-out, and potentially racy, photos as it takes on Alipay in mobile money-sending
China’s selfie-mania and people’s desire to view racy content on their mobiles may prove another cash cow for Tencent’s WeChat in the next week or two.
China’s favourite mobile messaging tool has thrown down the gauntlet to Alipay by launching a gimmicky new function ahead of the upcoming Lunar New Year holiday to its popular service that lets users exchange virtual packets of digital cash in red envelopes.
Soon, users will be able to upload a private photo that will be automatically blurred. This serves as an enticement for others in their social circle to send over a red envelope - containing money or redeemable vouchers - as this is required to make the picture clearly viewable.
WeChat ran an hourlong trial of its newly upgraded red packet programme on Tuesday afternoon and over 18 million users joined in and uploaded photos, according to thepaper.cn.
“It was a lot of fun. Everyone I know was talking about WeChat’s red envelope photo topic,” said Liu Chunchun, a clerk based in the city of Shenzhen in southern Guangdong province.