Tencent launched a new Red Envelope game today, users can send pictures that can only be viewed if friends send them a red envelope.
How does it work?
You can pick a special photo and send it to your moments. But here is the catch: your friends can only see a blurry picture. If they want to see the picture, they will need to pay: by sending you a red envelope.
Even more exciting: the campaign only lasted for 3 hours (from 5pm to 8pm). If you wanted to see the pictures, you had to be quick. This became a viral trigger for WeChat payment: shortly after the campaign launch, red envelopes were the number one trending topic of the day.
Other side of the story
Some users hated it and quickly started generating sarcastic memes about the campaign.
“I am so poor I can’t even see WeChat Moments.”
“Great, finally you need to pay to view all the baby pictures”
“Please, you guys are too ugly to expect me to pay to view your photos.”
Think twice before you post blurry picture. Are you sure you won’t end up all embarrassed because nobody wants to pay to view your photo?
“Keep calm and …”
“What is wrong with my eyes?”
Whether you love it or hate it, as long as user talks about it, it is a successful viral campaign. Well played, Tencent.
Alibaba
Alibaba is going to send 4,000,000 red envelopes tomorrow (Jan 27th) at 10:00am. We will continue to follow the story.
Conclusion
This is only the beginning of the red envelope war among BAT (Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent). Alibaba is going to release its new year red envelope scheme tonight. With the Chinese Spring Festival only a week away, the three tech giant will join the war with millions of investment. The target is to have as many users as possible to link their accounts with their bank cards and start purchasing!