Li Chao, a consultant with the iResearch Consulting Group, described the fast-catching fad as a marketing war in a red envelope.
Hong Tao, an economics professor at the Beijing Technology and Business University, said the traditional practice of gifting the red envelope, modified by the modern digital age, serves two purposes.
“The digital red envelope comes with ready-made unique Chinese cultural connotations,” Hong said. “It also has another popular function, making a mobile payment. Internet companies, popularizing mobile payments [through entertaining and interactive means], are not only promoting their payment system for their own benefit, but also [benefiting] the traditional companies [subscribing] to their systems.”
When the trend started, Ding Daoshi, Dean of the Beijing-based Sootoo Research Institute, which provides professional information on the Internet industry, was worried that sending and receiving red envelopes online would lead to distance between family members, making them drift away from one another. However, he realized his worries were needless.
“Getting e-red envelopes has turned into a collective entertainment,” Ding said, “It enables parents and children to engage in a new kind of communication like friends.”