Happy Chinese New Year to everyone! We just said goodbye to the Year of Horse and are warmly welcoming the Year of Yang (羊). In Chinese, Yang refers to any ruminant mountain animal with horns, so many foreign media are confused whether it is the Year of Sheep, Goat, Ram or “any ruminant horned animal” – well, Chinese are not troubled by the distinction. They just prefer sheep because they are more fluffy and lovely— at least President Xi welcomed the Year of Sheep in his New Year speech.

This year, the festival again has been perfectly utilized by Chinese marketers:

The top priority of most Chinese last night (New Year’s Eve) was getting the famous red envelopes which bring luck and fortune for the New Year – on their mobile phones. WhenWeChat introduced the “WeChat red envelope” last Chinese New Year, around 5 million people participated on the New Year’s Eve alone and this move won many WeChat Payment users immediately. This year, Alibaba joined the arena and gave out red envelopes both on Alipay and Taobao. WeChat, on the other hand, cooperated with China Central Television (CCTV) as well as other corporate sponsors. During the annual Chinese New Year Gala organized by CCTV last night, WeChat users could get “red envelopes” sponsored by many companies via a “shake it” function.  In addition, WeChat users could also give out red envelopes to their friends via WeChat.

Celebrating Chinese New Year with electronic envelopes

The event perfectly shows that the battle is all about mobile; for the companies, giving out red envelopes means  to improve their brand awareness and loyalty. For Chinese people, the electronic envelopes simply mean a new way of celebrating Chinese New Year — as they already gather and build up relationships via their mobile phones.

Source: nydailynews.com; cnn.com; xinhuanet / Picture: Toby Garden (Flickr Commons)