Chinese youngsters plan to teach parents about digital 'Hongbao'

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Chinese people traditionally give red envelopes filled with cash, known as “Hongbao” in Chinese, to family members and friends during the Chinese New Year.

But as the digital revolution continues, the manner of giving is changing. Some 95.2 percent of respondents to a recent survey said they will teach their parents how to use a smartphone app to send “Hongbao."

Since China’s Internet giant Tencent successfully launched its online red envelope service via WeChat in February 2014, the enthusiasm for various forms of cyber red envelopes has been high among Chinese smartphone users, especially the young generations.

While the youngsters are frantically tapping on their mobile phone screens and engaging in games of “Grab a red envelope”, their parents, who are often less tech-savvy, might wonder what they have been doing and feel neglected.

Red envelopes filled with money. /CFP Photo

A survey conducted by feidee, an online community bbs (bulletin board system), revealed that 92.7 percent of respondents said they exchange digital red envelopes during the Chinese New Year.

But 50.9 percent of the respondents’ parents do not know how to use smartphones to send digital red envelopes.

Does that mean those parents are not interested? Apparently not, according to the survey result. Fifty-seven percent of the respondents said their parents have shown interest in learning how to utilize digital red envelopes on smartphones, but only 48.3 percent of respondents helped teach their parents.

As for those who did not offer assistance, 57.8 percent said they assumed it would be difficult for their parents to learn how to send red envelopes digitally.

At the end of the survey, 95.2 percent of the respondents said they were willing to teach their parents to use digital red envelopes this year.

“Grab a red envelope” could turn out to be a good way to spend some quality time with your family during the holidays, and more communications would definitely help bridge the generation gap between parents and children.

Tencent saw a record high number of digital red envelopes exchanged during last year’s Chinese Lunar New Year holidays.

Red envelopes were sent and received about 32.1 billion times via WeChat during holidays. Tencent announced 516 million people participated in exchanging red envelopes last year.

(With inputs from CRI)