Tencent unveils e-hongbao tool
Print Edition
Tencent, China’s largest Internet company by market value, has a new tool that allows friends to give electronic hongbao, or red packets, via its popular smartphone chatting application WeChat as it bids to expand in the mobile payment sector.
“We hope to let WeChat users feel the New Year’s atmosphere by designing this new feature considering that giving and receiving red packets is a traditional custom,” Wu Yi, head of Tencent’s payment product development, said in an online interview on Tencent’s news portal yesterday.
He didn’t reveal the numbers of participants that have used the e-hongbao feature.
The new function is available through the latest version of WeChat on both Android and iOS devices.
WeChat users have been able to use the e-hongbao feature since it became available on Sunday.
One Shanghai lady surnamed Miao said she has received more than 50 yuan from dozens of friends and given out about 200 yuan since Monday.
“It brings much fun interacting with friends in WeChat even though these red packets are not large,” she said.
But security concerns and the fear of losing their mobile phones have stopped others from linking their debit cards to WeChat. The users have to link their debit cards in order to give or receive the electronic red packets.
Tencent is aiming to catch up with e-commerce giant Alibaba Group’s Alipay, the leader in the mobile payment sector.
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