823 million people in China sent or received "red envelopes," or lucky money, through WeChat during the first 6 days of the weeklong Lunar New Year holiday this year, up 7.12 percent compared to the same period last year, according to WeChat owner Tencent.

 

春节假期前6天，有8.23亿人使用微信发送或接收红包，较去年同期增长7.12%。

 

The company says Beijing saw the largest number of red envelop¹ exchanges in China. Guangzhou and Chongqing followed behind in second and third.

 

Tencent launched an updated version of the "red envelopes" this year, including customized appearances, New Year's blessings² and special emojis.

 

Meanwhile, Tencent says the overall number of messages sent through WeChat during the holidays increased by 64.2 percent compared to 2018.

 

The company says the post-90's generation was the most active on WeChat during the holiday.

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