Chinese Internet giants woo customers with cash gifts

An incredible amount of gift money will be handed out at New Year by Chinese Internet companies competing for the mobile payment market.

Alipay announced it would give away 800 million yuan (121 million U.S. dollars) on the lunar New Year's Eve. Viewers of the central broadcaster's gala can share the money by accessing to the company's mobile App while watching the show.

Tencent's instant messaging tools, QQ and WeChat, have 200 million yuan of "red envelopes" to give away to its customers. A company spokesman told Xinhua the number of "red envelopes" sent and received via its WeChat messaging platform reached 2.31 billion on Jan. 1, and expects the number to exceed 10 billion during Spring Festival, 10 times more than last year.

In December, Apple and China UnionPay announced a partnership to bring Apple Pay to China to cash in on mobile payment services. Enditem