The first day of the red envelope war revealed the winner: Alipay's "collection of blessings" rehashed the old trick, QQ played with AR, look up

Have you grabbed a red envelope today? The Spring Festival is getting closer and closer, and the "red envelope war" on major platforms has officially kicked off. On January 18, Alipay launched the "Collect Blessings" red envelope grabbing activity, and on January 20, QQ launched the "LBS+AR Sky-dropping Red Envelope". Since WeChat did not launch a red envelope activity this year, the "red envelope war" has also changed from a three-kingdoms battle to a duel between Alipay and QQ. So which red envelope is stronger, Alipay or QQ? Let's compare it from the perspectives of red envelope strength, playability, technology, and practicality.

Competition intensity: Alipay 200 million cash, QQ 250 million cash + 3 billion card coupons

Since it is a "red envelope war", the amount of "goods" in the red envelope is naturally crucial. Alipay's "collect blessings" red envelope grabbing activity is the same as last year, with a total reward amount of 200 million in cash. Interestingly, last year Alipay was criticized for having too few Jingye Fu, and this year's substantial increase in Jingye Fu was also criticized. On the first day of the launch on January 18, the number of users who collected all five blessings reached 5 million, and on January 20, the number had become 30 million. It is conceivable that when the 200 million is divided on New Year's Eve, the money in hand may be negligible...

QQ's "handsomeness" is undoubtedly much bigger. This year, QQ will distribute 250 million yuan in cash and 3 billion yuan worth of coupons in the Spring Festival. This red envelope is obviously "bigger" than Alipay. On January 20, the first day of QQ red envelopes, many users posted the cash red envelopes they grabbed on Weibo and WeChat, which set off a new fortune-making posture of "scanning the sky with mobile phones", which immediately attracted the attention of the whole nation. It is worth noting that QQ will also distribute large red envelopes at 12 noon every day from January 21 to 24 in multiple locations in 14 cities across the country, with amounts ranging from 8 to 188 yuan. Compared with working hard to collect the five blessings and finally finding out that you only get a few yuan or a few cents, QQ red envelopes are of course more sincere, not to mention the 3 billion coupons issued by a large number of high-quality brands such as Clash Royale, NOW, Pepsi, China Eastern Airlines, Ctrip, Watsons, etc.

Gameplay: Alipay is still "collecting blessings", QQ has more diverse and interesting gameplay

Let’s take a look at the basic gameplay of Alipay and QQ red envelopes. Alipay continues the idea of ​​“collecting five blessings” last year. Users can scan any “Fu” character to get a blessing card. In addition, they can also get it by asking friends or participating in the “Ant Forest” game. QQ’s “LBS+AR sky-dropping red envelope” uses LBS positioning. Users arrive at the location where the red envelope is distributed and perform AR scanning to get the red envelope.

From the gameplay point of view, Alipay does not have much new ideas. The main difference from last year is that the number of "Diligence Blessings" has increased significantly, and the "Universal Blessings" and "Shunshou Yangfu Blessings" have been added - the essence is still "collecting blessings". In contrast, QQ is much more playable. Users can get red envelopes by AR scanning at designated locations, which is not only fun but also helps to exercise. At the same time, QQ also has "celebrity red envelopes". Each celebrity has four cards. After collecting them, you can "take a photo" with the celebrity, including Angelababy, TFBOYS, Huang Xiaoming, Huang Zitao, Zhao Liying and more than 20 other popular celebrities, bringing a more novel and fashionable red envelope experience.

In addition, QQ users can send "LBS+AR sky-dropped red envelopes" to friends on the map in a personal way, further enhancing the radiation breadth and interactivity of QQ red envelopes. During the "swipe and swipe" red envelope grabbing session on New Year's Eve, in addition to the rain of red envelopes, stickers, firecrackers, etc. fell all over the screen. In comparison, the gameplay of Alipay red envelopes is relatively fixed, and all you can do is keep "swiping" the blessing card, while the gameplay of QQ red envelopes is more diverse and more interesting.

Technology competition: Alipay accused of fake AR, QQ integrates LBS+AR

The "red envelope war" has been going on for so long, and it would be a shame if we didn't try something with some high-tech content. This year, both Alipay and QQ have set their sights on AR technology. For Alipay, as long as you scan any "Fu", the so-called "AR dynamic picture" will appear and you can receive a Fu; QQ integrates AR into the virtual map, which has treasure chests, red envelopes, celebrity portraits, etc. When you receive a red envelope, you can see the dynamic picture of baby Q playing the role of the God of Wealth giving out red envelopes, which is quite cool.

At first glance, the two seem similar, but many netizens complain that Alipay's AR looks a bit crude. In response, a technical expert answered that from the perspective of AR technology implementation, Alipay is actually "fake AR". In layman's terms, there are two elements of AR technology. One is recognition, which is "scanning for blessings", and the other is tracking. Virtual content must be connected to the real world. For example, if the subject of the photo is a person, then when the phone is no longer facing the person, the person should not be visible. The implementation effect of QQ's LBS+AR red envelope is like this. After the QQ little god of wealth appears, if the camera moves away, the user will not be able to see the red envelope, and the interface will prompt to return to the original position. However, Alipay's "AR" will continue no matter where it is facing after recognition. Rather than saying that this is AR, it is better to say that it is just playing a video simulating AR. In this way, the so-called introduction of AR technology is meaningless, and scanning a QR code will also work. QQ connects AR and LBS, virtualizing the map to realize "red envelopes falling from the sky" based on geographic positioning. It is not only high-tech, but also attracts users to actually go outdoors to participate in activities and experience the New Year atmosphere from online to offline.

It is worth noting that at the end of last year, Alipay had just launched AR real-life red envelopes for only one day when netizens discovered a loophole - using PS to remove the "clue" mosaic, you can get red envelopes at will. And now Alipay's "collect blessing" red envelopes have also been found to have a loophole: instead of scanning the word "福", scanning other similar words such as "逼" can also get blessing cards... It's really ridiculous. It stands to reason that Alipay's technical strength is not bad, and it is hard to understand why loopholes appear again and again. On the one hand, this shows that Alipay is not very mature in recognition technology, and on the other hand, it also exposes the weakness in the use of technology combinations. It is really a bit thin to grab red envelopes just by scanning.

Practical: QQ adds face-to-face red envelopes to return red envelopes to their essence of communication

Red envelopes are a feature of the Spring Festival. It is a traditional custom for elders to give red envelopes to younger generations and for relatives and friends to give red envelopes to each other. Although mobile red envelopes are popular, face-to-face red envelopes are still irreplaceable. This year, QQ has launched a more down-to-earth and more appropriate "face-to-face" red envelope based on last year's "command red envelope" and "personalized red envelope". You can send red envelopes to face-to-face relatives and friends at any time by opening QQ on your mobile phone. Even if the other party is not a QQ friend, you can scan the code to receive the red envelope.

It can be said that QQ's "face-to-face" red envelopes have continued the enthusiasm for sending red envelopes online in previous years to offline, allowing everyone to communicate more while grabbing red envelopes, and returning to the essence of red envelope blessings. Such practicality is difficult to match with Alipay red envelopes.

Overall, compared with Alipay and QQ red envelopes, QQ red envelopes have certain advantages in terms of red envelope strength, playability, technology, and practicality. They implement the QQ "entertainment and social networking" concept, are fun, interesting, and practical, and are more attractive to users, especially young users. In fact, the essence of Spring Festival red envelopes is still social networking. Cash and AR are just means. The ultimate goal is to get people back to communication and increase emotions, and QQ undoubtedly does it better. It is not difficult to see that as soon as QQ's Spring Festival red envelopes were launched, the outcome of this year's red envelope battle has been decided.