Happy Year of the Pig to friends who celebrate. The holiday has evolved with technology as Yahoo Finance describes
With over 800 million smartphone users and the world’s largest mobile payment market, the annual holiday, which includes the tradition of giving cash in red envelopes to deliver good luck and greetings to family members and friends, has evolved into a day of promotions. Homegrown companies like Baidu and Alibaba are pouring cash into digital red envelopes, which have become prevalent, to attract users to its services.
Baidu (BIDU), known as China’s Google, offered a whopping 900 million yuan ($133 million) in cash prizes on Lunar New Year eve. The search giant partnered with CCTV New Year’s Gala, the most watched entertainment show in the world. Users need to download Baidu’s app, follow instructions from the gala show, and try their luck to win random amounts of cash prizes. One-hundred million users received a red envelope containing 20.19 yuan ($3) during the four-hour gala, while 10,000 lucky users won the biggest amount of 2019 yuan ($299), according to Baidu.
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