WeChat launches gold-gift exchange event for Valentine’s Day

< Back to more Chinese Marketing Case Studies

Though buying your partner flowers and chocolate on Valentine’s Day may be the traditional way to show affection, Tencent is offering users something different. On Valentine’s Day this year, Tencent’s WeChat debuted its gold gift-exchange feature, allowing millions of users on the messaging app to send virtual gold packets to friends and loved ones.

 

• The function is done in collaboration with the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, from where the gold is being offered to buyers on WeChat.

 

Similar to its digital red packet feature where users are able to send money as a virtual gift, Tencent’s gold packet gifting platform lets users buy grams of virtual gold and send it to friends.

 

• An interesting fact is that Tencent also sets a cap on the amount of gold people can buy, at 1.314 grams per gold package on the Valentine’s Day, as the number of “1314” in China has a very romantic meaning which is “I will love you for the rest of my life.”

 

This gold gifting system was not completely new however. According to dedicated WeChat users of the app, Tencent trialled its gold-gifting platform in the run up to Lunar New Year.