Tencent boss Pony Ma won’t hand out red packets this year amid Wuhan virus concerns

This marks the first time in nearly two decades that Tencent has cancelled its much-anticipated red packet handout to employees

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Tencent Holdings chairman and chief executive Pony Ma Huateng hands out red packets to employees for Lunar New Year in 2019. Photo: Handout

Published: 5:30am, 22 Jan 2020Updated: 5:24pm, 16 Feb 2020

Tencent Holdings founder Pony Ma Huateng will not hand out red packets to employees for the Lunar New Year, the first time this has happened in nearly two decades, as China deals with the spread of the Wuhan coronavirus.

Shenzhen-based Tencent has cancelled its traditional hongbao handout to staff on the first working day after this year’s Spring Festival, which is on February 1, according to a post released on the company’s social media account on Tuesday.

It did not provide a specific reason for the cancellation, but reminded employees to stay healthy during the public holiday, which starts on Friday. There was also no indication about the electronic distribution of red packets to employees via Tencent’s WeChat app.

A spokesman for Tencent declined to comment about the cancelled activity, which has long enabled many company staff to meet face-to-face with Ma and other senior management.

Tencent Holdings employees wait in line last year to receive red packets from senior management, led by founder Pony Ma Huateng, at the company’s headquarters in Shenzhen. Photo: Handout

“It’s a little bit frustrating not to meet Ma this year,” said one Tencent employee who declined to be identified. “Tencent can send out red packets to us via WeChat, but it is not the same as the tradition we’ve been used to.”

Ma, Tencent’s chairman and chief executive, has said that handing out red packets to staff for nearly two decades allowed him to personally offer good wishes to each employee. The tradition continued even when WeChat’s Red Packet feature was launched in 2014 as a means to send money electronically during the Lunar New Year.