--FILE--Chinese mobile phone users send Hongbao (red envelope) to friends through the Alipay Wallet mobile payment services of Alibaba Group and the mobile messaging app Weixin, or WeChat, of Tencent on their smartphones on the Chinese New Year's Eve in Hangzhou city, east China's Zhejiang province, 18 February 2015. Tencent trumped Alibaba in the "red envelope war" to lure users on to the companies' competing mobile payment platforms during the lunar New Year holiday. Users of Tencent's WeChat mobile messenger sent 1bn red envelopes on lunar New Year's eve, February 18, compared with 240m sent through Alipay Wallet, the app linked to Alibaba's mobile payment service. The virtual red envelopes ª hongbao in Chinese ª are inspired by the Chinese holiday tradition of gifting cash-stuffed envelopes to friends and family. Z-Ben Advisors, a consultancy that tracks China's investment management industry, said the holiday promotion marked a coup for Tencent, which processed only 10 per cent of Chinese mobile payments in the third quarter last year, compared with 83 per cent for Alipay, according to iResearch. "Z-Ben Advisors would not be surprised to learn that this year's hongbao promotion attracted another 100m-200m clients (and their bank details) for WeChat. Alibaba's gains are likely to be less impressive, " the consultancy wrote on Thursday.
