At midnight on February 1st, Tencent's AI application "Yuanbao" officially launched its "Get on Yuanbao, Share 1 Billion" Spring Festival campaign, instantly sparking a massive wave of online participation. Data shows that within just hours of the event going live, over 10 of the 10,000-yuan "Pony Cards" had already been won, with "Yuanbao pays, friends open red envelopes" quickly becoming a new social trend; numerous netizens are sharing their "spoils" and strategies on social platforms, signaling that AI applications are accelerating their entry into mainstream life through highly interactive and social gameplay. This red envelope event will run until February 17th, featuring two main participation methods: the "Main Venue Lucky Draw" and the "Blessing Phrase Red Envelope," with a prize pool containing cash red envelopes, 10,000-yuan Pony Cards, Multiplier Cards, and various other benefits, offering maximum rewards of up to 10,000 yuan. In the main venue, users receive 5 basic daily draw opportunities, with the ability to earn over 40 additional chances by completing tasks. The red envelope amounts utilize a round-by-round accumulation mechanism, and when combined with "Multiplier Cards" that can increase the total by up to 5 times, the final accumulated amount can be multiplied by the multiplier and withdrawn directly to WeChat Change on a designated withdrawal date. The limited edition of 100 "10,000-yuan Pony Cards" each feature unique designs, and winners can collectively withdraw their winnings on February 17th. Furthermore, sharing red envelopes to platforms like WeChat and QQ grants additional rewards, further stimulating social sharing and virality. This 10-billion-yuan red envelope campaign is viewed by the industry as a significant offensive move by Tencent in its push for mass adoption of AI. On January 25th, Tencent prominently announced the plan via an internal notice and opened beta testing for social features like the "Yuanbao Faction" during the reservation period, drawing widespread industry attention to the "AI + Social" model. Tencent's Chairman and CEO, Ma Huateng, stated frankly in a recent internal meeting that he hopes this red envelope event will "recreate the explosive moment of WeChat red envelopes from 11 years ago." During the 2014 Spring Festival, WeChat red envelopes successfully activated the payment market through social virality; now, against the backdrop of increasingly mature large language model technology, Tencent is attempting to use Yuanbao's interactive red envelopes to push AI applications beyond mere tools and into social and daily scenarios, aiming to capture the mindshare of C-end users. Coincidentally, Baidu also recently announced that from January 26th to March 12th, users can participate in splitting a 500 million yuan cash prize pool by using the Ernie Assistant within the Baidu APP. The fact that these two tech giants are simultaneously targeting the Spring Festival season with a combination of "real money + AI products" reflects an industry-wide acceleration in shifting focus from a pure technology race towards user acquisition and ecosystem building.
Comments