外媒看中國 春節微信紅包滿天飛

Popular messaging service WeChat is hogging the limelight this Chinese New Year — by giving the traditions typical of this festive period a facelift.
這個農曆新年，大衆短信服務平臺“微信”搶盡了風頭——使節日的傳統習俗煥然一新。

As technology has altered the way people in China carry out certain traditions during Chinese New Year, at no point is it clearer that Weixin, the version of WeChat available in the country, has emerged as a frontrunner in the wave of change.
隨着科技對中國人慶祝新年習俗方式的改變，微信——中國的微聊媒介，可謂勁頭十足，儼然成爲這次變革的弄潮兒。

The Weixin team came upon a brilliant idea of taking the Chinese New Year tradition of gifting money into the digital era. Basically, rather than (or, perhaps, in addition to) giving red envelopes of money to family and friends, Weixin users could tap into digital payments and send monetary gifts of up to CNY100 (around $16.50) per go to others on the chat app.
微信團隊突發創想，將中國新年送紅包的傳統融入了數字時代。大體上，除向親朋好友分發紅包外，微信用戶還可選擇電子支付方式向微信圈內的好友派發紅包，紅包金額可高達100元（約16.5美元）。

State media Xinhua reports (hat/tip Tech in Asia) that the first two days of Chinese New Year saw more than five million people across China taking part in Weixin’s online red envelope activity, with more than 20 million red envelopes handed out, according to data from Tencent, the company that owns WeChat.
官方媒體新華社報道，僅在新年的前兩天，全國就有500多萬人參與了微信線上搶紅包活動，共分發了2000多萬個紅包。該數據來自微信的開發方騰訊公司。

At its peak, 585,000 people took part in gifting red envelopes over a mere five minutes on Weixin, with 121,000 red envelopes being claimed. The messaging service has an estimated 500 million plus registered users in China alone, while it has 270 million active users worldwide.
在高峯期，僅5分鐘內就有58.5萬名微信用戶參與了發紅包活動，其中成功搶到的紅包有12.1萬個。據估計，該短信平臺在中國有5億多名註冊用戶，全球約有2.7億名活躍用戶。

Another tradition has been entirely revamped by Weixin as well.
微信同時還爲另一個傳統習俗注入了全新活力。

It is customary to send New Year well-wishes to your friends on the eve of Chinese New Year — and this year, a whopping 10 million messages were sent in one minute at peak on the eve of Chinese New Year via Weixin. The number of messages sent this year on the chat app was double that of last year, showing that more people are flocking to the app instead of sending cards or SMS-es.
中國的傳統習俗，除夕要向朋友發送新春祝福。但是今年除夕，在高峯期，1分鐘內竟有多達1000萬條的短信是通過微信發送出去的。今年通過微信平臺發送出去的短信數量是去年的一倍，這說明較之賀卡或手機短信，越來越多的人傾向於微信平臺了。

Chinese New Year is a time steeped in tradition, and the fact that Weixin has managed to make its presence so strongly welcomed by users speaks volumes about its ability to straddle the space between old and new.
中國新年是慶賀傳統的時刻，然而微信卻成功獲得了推廣並受到了用戶的熱烈喜愛，這也大大證明了微信跨越新舊的能力。

As WeChat moves into verticals such as m-commerce, it wouldn’t be any surprise if the app soon disrupts other traditions next year. Who knows, we may just get to see Chinese New Year grocery shopping or delivery, or the booking of transportation back to people’s hometowns, done entirely via WeChat in the future.
隨着微信應用到諸如“移動商務”等相關領域，相信明年會有更多傳統習俗被注入新的時尚。說不定，以後的年貨採購派發或回家車票預訂都能在微信上搞定呢！