As the Spring Festival approaches, Chinese Internet enterprises are preparing to give out virtual red envelopes - a tradition of giving and receiving lucky money as gifts - to their users, a practice that has almost become a holiday ritual.

(Screenshot from Kuaishou)

There will be virtual red envelopes worth more than 5 billion yuan (about 700 million) sent by Chinese Internet companies during the Lunar New Year, according to incomplete statistics.

The annual “blessing” activities of Alipay, an online payment platform, are most well-known to Chinese online users, of which 500 million yuan will be dished out to participants who have collected a full set of five "blessings".

From 8 p.m. on Jan. 24, Kuaishou, a Chinese video sharing app, will use the ‘video plus thumbs-up’ method to distribute red envelopes worth 1 billion yuan during the Spring Festival gala. The red packets will be distributed in five rounds for the first time, including 2.2 million "koi fish red envelopes" each containing a maximum of 2,020 yuan.

Baidu, a Chinese technology company, officially announced the launch of the "Chinese year of good luck" from midnight on the Jan.15 to midnight on Jan 24. During the activities, users can carve up this year's red packets worth 500 million yuan through two major games: "collecting good luck" and "reunion red envelopes".

Toutiao, one of China's most popular media sites, announced that it would give out 2 billion yuan in red envelopes from Jinri Toutiao, Douyin and other eight products.

Between Jan.14 and 31, users can earn access to the envelopes through games such as collecting cards, rain of red packets, playing games and other activities. Participating users also have the opportunity to win 10,000 yuan in "koi fish red packets".

Weishi, Tencent's short video app, also announced that it would spend 1 billion yuan giving away virtual red packets from the Minor New Year to the Lantern Festival.

During the Spring Festival, Weishi added the "video red envelope" activity in its WeChat lucky money, during which users can directly send video red envelopes to friends and relatives in WeChat.

In stark contrast, many cyber users are wondering why WeChat, a popular messaging app, isn’t giving out red envelopes. Back in 2014, WeChat payments became a hit with WeChat lucky money.

In fact, WeChat is not only "penniless", but is also starting to make money from red envelopes. Recently, WeChat launched a fee-based open platform for WeChat red packet covers, which is open to enterprises, governments, media and other organizations.

Enterprises can buy customized covers from WeChat according to the number of covers at a price of 10 yuan per piece, with a minimum order of 100 pieces.

Some netizens said it was no wonder that at WeChat 2020 open class PRO, Zhang Xiaolong, president of Weixin Group, said the company would also have some new creations in the field of red envelopes, for which users might also play a certain creative role.