WeChat’s first New Year red packets
App & software · 2014 · Niche
A familiar cash-gifting ritual became a fast-moving game inside group chats.
Spread Score
How it worksNumbers
- Participants
- >8M
- First holiday · Tencent-reported via Techweb / People’s Daily
- Packets claimed
- >40M
- First holiday · Tencent-reported via Techweb / People’s Daily
- Seed to milestone
- 4 days
- Jan 26 ’14 to Jan 30 ’14
- Platforms
- 2
- Started on Open web
- Origin
- Seeded
- Finance
How it spread
Trace the originSenders chose a pot and number of shares; friends opened packets to discover random amounts. CNR documented a group making its biggest winner fund the next round. Tencent reported over five million participants by January 31 at 16:00.
Documented milestone; not a measured attention peak.
5 more events on this chart
Join free to see themTimeline (8)
January 2014
Tencent / Weixin seed · Jan 26 ’14
The New Year Red Packet public account began spreading nationally, according to the launch-team account.[2]
Tencent / Weixin owner response · Jan 28 ’14
Red Packet gained an entry inside Weixin’s My Bank Cards area.[2]
Beijing News press · Jan 30 ’14
Beijing News reported a previous-evening service interruption and Tencent’s denial of inflated payment-user claims.[3]
Spread the same way
New cases, every week
How the next thing spread, the week it does.