Investors should consult Golden麒麟 analyst reports for authoritative, professional, timely, and comprehensive analysis to uncover potential thematic opportunities! In a rare occurrence, WeChat has taken action against its "sibling" application, Yuanbao. On February 4th, the WeChat platform issued an announcement stating it had recently received user feedback and complaints regarding Yuanbao. The platform identified that Yuanbao's Spring Festival marketing campaign utilized methods like "completing tasks" and "receiving red packets" to induce users into frequently sharing links into WeChat group chats, thereby disrupting the platform's ecosystem, degrading user experience, and causing harassment.
Following evaluation, WeChat has moved to restrict Yuanbao's non-compliant links, blocking them from being opened directly within the WeChat application, with the measures taking effect immediately. According to the announcement, the restriction placed on Yuanbao was not due to the red packets themselves, but rather the excessive spamming caused by the incentivized sharing behavior. Interestingly, the target of WeChat's restriction is not an external application, but rather Tencent's own recently promoted AI application—Yuanbao. Simultaneously, Yuanbao, which was "banned" by its big brother, has also been mistakenly identified by some users as the insurance platform Yuanbao Inc., leading to demands for refunds of inexplicably deducted insurance premiums.
A Red Packet Battle Still Unfolding Judging purely from a platform maturity perspective, WeChat's intervention is not surprising. As a super-app boasting over a billion monthly active users, WeChat has always prioritized user experience. However, when viewed through the lens of Tencent's overall corporate strategy, this move does involve a degree of internal tough love. Yuanbao is no ordinary new product; it is currently the "favorite child" that Tencent has been diligently nurturing. On January 25th, Yuanbao announced its "Notice on Distributing 1 Billion RMB in Cash for Spring Festival," declaring that a New Year activity would commence on February 1st, allowing users to share in 1 billion RMB cash red packets via the Yuanbao App.
A day later, at Tencent's annual meeting, Tencent's Chairman and CEO Ma Huateng personally endorsed Yuanbao. He expressed his hope that the Yuanbao red packet campaign could recreate the phenomenal success of the original WeChat red packets. At midnight on February 1st, Tencent's "Get on Yuanbao, Share 1 Billion" campaign officially launched. Scheduled to run until February 17th, the core activities include a "main venue red packet draw" and "blessing phrase red packets," with users having the chance to win up to 10,000 RMB in cash. The cash giveaway produced immediate results. On the first day of the campaign, many users woke up to find their WeChat groups flooded with Yuanbao red packet links.
Eager to capitalize on the tech giant's giveaway, users even created dedicated mutual-aid groups on WeChat and shared strategies for grabbing the red packets.
The outcome was that Yuanbao surged to the top of the free app rankings on the China iOS App Store, currently followed by Douyin Selection, Ant Afu, Qishui Music, and Doubao.
However, it was precisely during this wave of Yuanbao link sharing that the issues mentioned in WeChat's announcement emerged. Today, many users discovered that the Yuanbao red packet links in their WeChat groups could no longer be opened normally.
Addressing the new measures, a Weibo account certified as the WeChat PR Director, "WeChat Zhou Yi," posted this morning: "User experience comes first, we treat everyone equally," accompanied by a meme captioned "When I go crazy, I'll even hit myself."
Concurrently, Yuanbao's official account stated: "Yuanbao is urgently optimizing and adjusting its sharing mechanism. We will launch the improvements as soon as possible to ensure a smooth red packet grabbing experience for users."
It's evident that Tencent's action against Yuanbao links is not a case of "internal strife." More accurately, it represents a act of self-regulation by Tencent, balancing platform governance with strategic experimentation. Notably, Yuanbao is not the only participant in the Spring Festival AI red packet wars. On the same day, January 25th, Baidu announced the launch of its 2026 Spring Festival red packet campaign, with a total pool of 500 million RMB, running until March 12th. Reportedly, besides distributing red packets through AI interactions and card collecting within the Baidu App, Baidu has also integrated its Ernie Assistant into the red packet system, guiding users to participate via various creative Spring Festival activities within the AI application. On February 2nd, Alibaba's Tongyi Qianwen announced a 3 billion RMB "Spring Festival Treat Plan," expected to go live on February 6th. During the festival, the Tongyi Qianwen App will collaborate with Alibaba-affiliated platforms such as Hema, Fliggy, Damai, Taobao Quick Deals, and Tmall Supermarket to invite users to "eat, drink, and have fun" through freebies and large red packets. Additionally, ByteDance secured an early tie-in with the CCTV Spring Festival Gala, with its Volcano Engine officially announced in late December as the exclusive AI cloud partner for the 2026 Gala. During the event, ByteDance's Doubao intelligent assistant is expected to launch various interactive features alongside the Gala broadcast. Currently, the battle for new users among AI applications has clearly entered a stage of substantial financial investment. The restriction on Yuanbao does not signify a retreat, but rather serves as a reminder that this war cannot be fought by disregarding platform boundaries.
Tencent's Yuanbao Asked to Refund Insurance Premiums? While Yuanbao was busy dealing with the WeChat restrictions, editors came across a post from a university professor on social media claiming that Yuanbao had inadvertently tricked him into buying insurance. At first glance, this issue seems baffling. Isn't Yuanbao an AI app? How is it related to insurance? Subsequently, the professor added a comment clarifying: "Yuanbao Inc., not Yuanbao. Got them mixed up." This indicates that the culprit was not Tencent's Yuanbao, but the insurance-selling Yuanbao Inc. Besides this professor, social media posts were found where users inquired: "How do I get a refund for insurance premiums from Tencent Yuanbao?"
Under this post, dated April 2025, numerous commenters reported that they or their family members had been automatically enrolled and charged for insurance without their knowledge.
Comments revealed instances of users being charged three times at once, over 100 RMB each time, while others faced continuous deductions for 7 or 8 consecutive months. One user mentioned getting a refund after calling Yuanbao Inc.'s customer service, albeit with a 30% handling fee deducted. Another commented, "My husband accidentally bought a Yuanbao [Inc. policy] while reading a novel online, and it ended up covering over 20,000 RMB when he got sick later." In fact, controversies surrounding Yuanbao Inc. involving unauthorized enrollment and automatic deductions are not new. As early as November 2022, Red Star News reported that complaints against Yuanbao Inc. on the Hei Mao Tou Su platform had reached 846, primarily focusing on misleading elderly individuals into buying insurance and unauthorized charges. As of now, the number of complaints against Yuanbao Inc. on the aforementioned platform has risen to 1,211.
A case disclosed by Chongqing Legal Daily in late January is particularly illustrative. While reviewing his Alipay statements, a Chongqing resident, Mr. Hu, discovered that his account had been automatically debited by Yuanbao Inc. for seven consecutive months, from October 9, 2024, to March 9, 2025. These deductions were for two insurance policies from the "Yuanbao Care Series," underwritten by Taikang Insurance and Guoren Insurance, totaling 1,503 RMB. Mr. Hu and his family confirmed they had never purchased these policies. Ultimately, after Mr. Hu explicitly threatened to report the matter to regulators, Yuanbao Inc. refunded the full 1,503 RMB on January 13, 2026. Despite successfully reclaiming the premium with media involvement, Mr. Hu was unable to obtain the original evidence of policy enrollment. In terms of corporate background, Yuanbao Inc., founded in 2019, is not a small player. Beyond its founder's background from major internet firms, its partners are also notable. Its website lists collaborators including Taikang Online, ZhongAn Insurance, China Ping An Property & Casualty Insurance, Pacific Insurance, and PICC.
Like Tencent's Yuanbao, Yuanbao Inc. is also riding the AI wave, utilizing big data and AI technology to precisely match users with insurance products. Its operating entity is Yuanbao Insurance Brokerage (Beijing) Co., Ltd., established in October 2005. In June 2020, Yuanbao Inc. acquired this Beijing company, obtaining a national insurance brokerage license, and subsequently entered the internet insurance industry. The founder of Yuanbao Inc., Fang Rui, previously worked at NetEase for 17 years, holding positions including Vice President of NetEase Group and head of the Group's Technology Department, before founding the company. In May 2021, Yuanbao Inc. announced the completion of a Series C funding round of nearly 1 billion RMB, led by Source Code Capital, with participation from Cathay Innovation, and existing investors including Hillhouse Capital, Northern Light Venture Capital, Qiming Venture Partners, and SIG. In April 2025, Yuanbao Inc. successfully listed on the NASDAQ in the United States, under the stock ticker YB. Financial reports show the company generated revenue of 1.158 billion RMB and net profit of 370 million RMB in the third quarter of 2025, with cash reserves of 3.75 billion RMB at the end of the quarter. During that quarter, the number of new policies issued by Yuanbao Inc. reached 8 million, a year-on-year increase of 41.8%. As of the close of trading on February 3, 2026, Yuanbao Inc.'s stock price was $19.05 per share, with a total market capitalization of approximately $878 million (equivalent to about 6.091 billion RMB).
Conclusion Upon review, the entity causing consumer dissatisfaction and prompting demands for premium refunds is not Tencent's AI application Yuanbao, but rather the internet insurance business Yuanbao Inc. However, when similar names like "Yuanbao" and "Yuanbao Inc." frequently appear in the vast flow of information, average users can easily become confused and conflate the two. As seen in the aforementioned posts, while some comments correctly identified "Yuanbao Inc. Insurance," others mistakenly named "Tencent Yuanbao." In this situation, Tencent's Yuanbao has been completely mistaken for the other party. In this instance, Yuanbao is truly the unfortunate victim.
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