China’s major internet companies have turned the Lunar New Year into a battleground for user attention, swapping coded product releases for cash-laden stunts and festive UI tweaks. On Feb. 16 Tencent staff explained how users can trigger a gold-coloured effect for WeChat Moments — a visual flourish that turns shared New Year greetings into a temporary golden post and replaces likes and comments with festive emojis — by posting through the company’s Yuanbao service. Liking a gold Moments item may also drop a red packet, turning a customary greeting into a gamified reward.
The cosmetic upgrade sits alongside more tangible incentives. Yuanbao announced it would add 100 special cash vouchers (“ten‑thousand‑yuan small ‘MaKa’ cards”) on Feb. 16, available hourly from 16:00 to midnight. ByteDance’s AI app Doubao has promised spring festival red envelopes and, during the CCTV Spring Festival Gala broadcast, more than 100,000 technology prizes tied to its large model plus cash awards as high as 8,888 yuan. Meanwhile, the Qianwen app has extended its “big free‑order” promotion through the first day of the lunar year and is distributing time‑limited password red envelopes — some worth up to 2,888 yuan — alongside hourly red‑packet rain events on New Year’s Eve.
These promotions are not merely seasonal cheer. They are explicitly positioned as user acquisition and engagement levers: vouchers for groceries, movies, travel and accommodation; instant cash drops during televised moments; and novel social mechanics that encourage posting, liking and sharing. The vouchers and free‑order cards come with generous cross‑category use and extended validity, underlining that firms are buying attention and habits that may outlast the holiday.
For international observers, the interventions are a useful window into Chinese platform strategy under post‑regulatory normalisation. After several years of intense regulatory scrutiny and a wave of fines and restructurings, China’s tech firms appear to be leaning into conventional growth levers — promotional spending, gamification and aggressive product tie‑ins with payments and media — rather than the breakneck expansion of earlier years. They are doing so while foregrounding AI as a differentiator: apps market their “big model” capabilities alongside festive incentives, turning a cultural moment into a demonstration stage for new features.
The tactics carry trade‑offs. Generous cash giveaways are an effective short‑term magnet but costly and potentially unsustainable as a long‑term growth model. They also invite close regulatory attention in China, where authorities have previously pushed back on what they see as unhealthy competition or consumer exploitation. Data‑privacy and payment‑flow questions are also implicit: promotions that require posting, linking accounts, or using AI services create fresh streams of behavioral data that firms will seek to monetise.
Still, the immediate payoff is plain: holiday traffic surges and high‑visibility, culturally resonant touchpoints that can be converted into longer‑term habits. For advertisers and rival platforms, the campaigns raise the stakes for the Chinese internet ecology this spring — and may offer a preview of how AI will be rolled into consumer funnels going forward.