Red Envelopes on Weibo 微博

Popular messaging service WeChat is hogging the limelight this Chinese New Year — by giving the traditions typical of this festive period a facelift.

这个农历新年，大众短信服务平台“微信”抢尽了风头——使节日的传统习俗焕然一新。

As technology has altered the way people in China carry out certain traditions during Chinese New Year, at no point is it clearer that Weixin, the version of WeChat available in the country, has emerged as a frontrunner in the wave of change.

随着科技对中国人庆祝新年习俗方式的改变，微信——中国的微聊媒介，可谓劲头十足，俨然成为这次变革的弄潮儿。

The Weixin team came upon a brilliant idea of taking the Chinese New Year tradition of gifting money into the digital era. Basically, rather than (or, perhaps, in addition to) giving red envelopes of money to family and friends, Weixin users could tap into digital payments and send monetary gifts of up to CNY100 (around $16.50) per go to others on the chat app.

微信团队突发创想，将中国新年送红包的传统融入了数字时代。大体上，除向亲朋好友分发红包外，微信用户还可选择电子支付方式向微信圈内的好友派发红包，红包金额可高达100元（约16.5美元）。

State media Xinhua reports (hat/tip Tech in Asia) that the first two days of Chinese New Year saw more than five million people across China taking part in Weixin’s online red envelope activity, with more than 20 million red envelopes handed out, according to data from Tencent, the company that owns WeChat.

官方媒体新华社报道，仅在新年的前两天，全国就有500多万人参与了微信线上抢红包活动，共分发了2000多万个红包。该数据来自微信的开发方腾讯公司。

At its peak, 585,000 people took part in gifting red envelopes over a mere five minutes on Weixin, with 121,000 red envelopes being claimed. The messaging service has an estimated 500 million plus registered users in China alone, while it has 270 million active users worldwide.

在高峰期，仅5分钟内就有58.5万名微信用户参与了发红包活动，其中成功抢到的红包有12.1个。据估计，该短信平台在中国有5亿多名注册用户，全球约有2.7亿名活跃用户。

Another tradition has been entirely revamped by Weixin as well.

微信同时还为另一个传统习俗注入了全新活力。

It is customary to send New Year well-wishes to your friends on the eve of Chinese New Year — and this year, a whopping 10 million messages were sent in one minute at peak on the eve of Chinese New Year via Weixin. The number of messages sent this year on the chat app was double that of last year, showing that more people are flocking to the app instead of sending cards or SMS-es.

中国的传统习俗，除夕要向朋友发送新春祝福。但是今年除夕，在高峰期，1分钟内竟有多达1000万条的短信是通过微信发送出去的。今年通过微信平台发送出去的短信数量是去年的一倍，这说明较之贺卡或手机短信，越来越多的人倾向于微信平台了。

Chinese New Year is a time steeped in tradition, and the fact that Weixin has managed to make its presence so strongly welcomed by users speaks volumes about its ability to straddle the space between old and new.

中国新年是庆贺传统的时刻，然而微信却成功获得了推广并受到了用户的热烈喜爱，这也大大证明了微信跨越新旧的能力。

As WeChat moves into verticals such as m-commerce, it wouldn’t be any surprise if the app soon disrupts other traditions next year. Who knows, we may just get to see Chinese New Year grocery shopping or delivery, or the booking of transportation back to people’s hometowns, done entirely via WeChat in the future.

随着微信应用到诸如“移动商务”等相关领域，相信明年会有更多传统习俗被注入新的时尚。说不定，以后的年货采购派发或回家车票预订都能在微信上搞定呢！