Alipay users complain about red envelope promotion as battle with Tencent rages

Tencent and Alibaba, two of China’s largest internet companies, are once again locked in a battle for the hearts and minds of China’s users. As the Spring Festival holiday approaches, both companies have announced promotional events in which users have a chance to win red envelopes full of cash and coupons.

Alibaba said it was offering RMB 600 million (US$96 million) in red envelopes this year, and Tencent fired back with its own RMB 800 million (US$128 million) offering via its app store, in addition to WeChat promotions.

But although you’d think giving away free money would be an easy win for both companies, Alibaba’s giveaway has been met with anger and skepticism by many users. Afterposting to Weibo that more than two million people had already won, the company’s Alipay account was inundated with people complaining that they didn’t win, and that they didn’t know anyone who did. Messages ranged from the confused (“I didn’t get a cent, did anyone win?”) to the incensed (“Liars!”) to the insane (“I will kill your entire family”), but almost all of them were negative.

In response, the company promised to hold another drawing at 4 pm on Wednesday with an additional RMB 25 million (US$4 million) up for grabs. The move seems to have placated at least some of the company’s critics, as comments on subsequent Weibo posts are much more mixed.

Of course, the real battle over red envelopes this holiday season is not which company can give away more, but which company can sell more. Both Alibaba’s Alipay and Tencent’s WeChat offer red envelope sending services that allow users to send digital gifts of money to their friends, and over the holiday users are expected to send massive sums of cash via the services. Tencent has already taken steps to push its social advantage by shutting Alipay out of the WeChat app, and each company is pushing hard to outsell the other over the Spring Festival period.