Around 112 million digital red packets valued 6.67 billion yuan (US$971.07 million) were sent out on Tuesday via WeChat by young Chinese wishing their partners a Happy Valentine’s Day, according to data released by the largest mobile social platform in China Wednesday.
Of the total, 9.6 million virtual red packets were stuffed with 520 yuan. The digital red packet has been considered a handy and explicit way of expressing love in recent years, since the number “five-two-zero” sounds similar to “I love you” in Putonghua.
WeChat users usually could not send red packets worth more than 200 yuan each, but the platform had removed the cap for Valentine’s Day.
Other users filled red packets with smaller amounts of money, like 52 yuan or 5.20 yuan, which did not prevent them from showing their affections as well. And the odd amount of 13.14 yuan is also preferred, for the special meaning it carries in Chinese – one’s whole life.
Aside from digital red packets, WeChat offered a new feature called Tencent Microgold, which allows users to buy grams of virtual gold and send this as a gold packet to friends and lovers. The gold bought on the platform is offered by Industrial and Commercial Bank of China.
