Chinese People Choose IM Tools over Text Messages in Sending Lunar New Year Greetings

Chines people used to send Lunar New Year greetings to their beloved ones via text messages (around 0.1 yuan or 1.64 cents per message) or phone calls. With the popularity of IM services which only chage for data flows, more and more people shift to WeChat, QQ or Weibo to extend New Year greetings in recent years.

The number of messages sent through WeChat doubled YOY on the eve of Chinese Spring Festival (Jan. 30, 2014), the peak date when Chinese send wishes for the new lunar year. The number of messages received via WeChat tripled during the same period as compared with 2013. In the peak minute of the day, around 10 million messages were sent, according to data released by Tencent, developer of WeChat.

The number of messages sent through QQ, another popular IM service developed by Tencent, hit 13.6 billion, peaking at 32.70 million messages per minute during the eve of lunar new year. Moreover, 16 million users sent wishes via QQ Video, citing data released by Tencent.

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