China funds industry tipped for social media revolution

A drive by Chinese firms to incorporate the lunar new year tradition of distributing lucky money in red envelopes on to social media is being tipped as a catalyst for a fund industry revolution. Tencent’s WeChat, Sina’s Weibo and mobile payment platforms such as Alipay have made the practice of handing out hongbao, or a red packet, available via online chat forums. Some have also introduced associated opportunities to win “lucky money”. Red-packet transactions hit Rmb4 billion (…