Chinese tech companies give out millions of dollars in red packets every Chinese New Year. But users have to earn them through a series of complex tasks.

每年春节，中国的科技公司都会发放巨额红包。然而，用户们需要完成一系列复杂的任务才能拿到红包。

If you ask any child in China what’s the most exciting thing about welcoming another year， they are likely to answer： the red packets. It’s a festive tradition： During the holidays， people give out red envelopes full of cold hard cash1 to young members of the family. You can reliably get cash gifts every year until you graduate from school and start working full-time.

在中国，无论你问哪个孩子，迎接新年时最令他们激动的事情是什么，最可能得到的答案便是收到红包。送红包是一个节日传统。春节期间，人们把装满现金的红信封送给家中晚辈。孩子们每年都能实实在在地收到现金红包，直到他们完成学业并开始全职工作。

In fact， red packets have not merely turned from a physical activity to a digital one. They’ve become a way for Chinese tech companies to make a stack of money each year and attract new users and traffic. In return， users have to follow increasingly complicated rules to get a few bucks.

事实上，送红包不仅已从线下活动转变为线上活动，更已演变为中国科技公司每年赚大钱、吸引新用户和流量的一种手段。反观之，用户则不得不遵循日趋复杂的规则才能赚点小钱。

The digitization of red-packet giving started in the early 2010s， when super apps like Alipay and WeChat made it convenient for everyone to send and receive money on their phones. They also introduced mechanisms that breathed new life into the tradition， like a randomization allotment system， where people put one giant red packet in a group chat， and everyone opening it will get a random share of the total amount.

2010年代初，当支付宝、微信等超级应用让每个人都能便捷地使用手机收发钱款时，送红包也开始数字化转型。这些应用还引入了新的送红包机制，令古老的传统焕发新的生机。比如，引入随机分配系统——人们在一个聊天群中发一个大额红包，所有点开红包的人都能随机分得红包总额中的一部分。

The promise of variable rewards increases the feeling of excitement when you get a big share. It also prompted those who didn’t get much to ask for another chance， which has really made it a centerpiece of the new red packet culture.

正是这种份额大小不定的期望机制，增加了人们分得大份额时的兴奋感，也激发了没分得大份额的人们要求再尝试一次的欲望。这种欲望就是新型红包习俗的精髓所在。

And it didn’t take long until tech companies became the ones giving out the money.

很快，科技公司就扮演起发大红包的角色。

In 2015， WeChat decided to give out over $80 million in red packets during the Spring Festival Gala， a yearly tradition in China that gathers the family around the TV. To get a share of WeChat’s red packets， people had to shake their phones at a certain time of the show. According to data provided by WeChat， throughout the Chinese New Year’s Eve， people shook their phones 11 billion times. At the peak， people shook their phones 800 million times in just one minute.

围坐在电视前收看春节联欢晚会是中国家庭一年一度团聚时的传统。