According to the People's Bank of China, the country's central bank, in 2014, 4.5 billion transactions were made in mobile devices with 23 trillion yuan ($3.7 trillion) in total transaction volume, up 170 percent and 134 percent, respectively.

"During the 2014 Spring Festival, Tencent's WeChat was the only one offering digital hongbao services, but this year, major Web giants, including Baidu, Tencent and Alibaba, are all offering such services, in an attempt to grab a bigger share in the promising mobile payment segment."

"The boom of mobile payment will not only bring convenience to consumers, but also bring opportunities to Internet companies and financial institutions. Moreover, it will facilitate the country's shift toward consumption-driven economic growth," Liu said.

Wang Weidong, an analyst at iResearch Consulting Group, said it did not really matter which company won the red envelope competition, because different companies had different goals.

"For Alipay, the red envelope service was an opportunity to improve user loyalty during the festival. For WeChat, it was more about gaining new payment users," he said.

Double-edged sword

The Spring Festival holiday is supposed to be a period of time exclusively for family reunion. However, as people's enthusiasm for digital hongbao increased, the proportion of time they spend with family members during the holiday decreases. There has been widespread criticism over digital hongbao that it has alienated family members.

"I used to discuss programs in the Spring Festival Gala with my family members, but this year, I barely had time to watch the gala because I was staring at my cellphone all the time," said Kang, the 30-year-old radio station editor. "I went to karaoke with my cousins during the holiday, and I was grabbing electronic hongbao the whole time, even when I was singing karaoke!"

"On the last day of the holiday, I started to regret spending too much time on these digital hongbao. Therefore, instead of fighting for hongbao, I watched TV with my mom that night. I left home feeling so sorry! I should have spent more time with my parents."

But Kang said regret came with a sense of fulfillment when he managed to bring classmates closer.

"Next year, I will still play this game, but definitely with less money and for a smaller amount of time," Kang said.

Dong Chenyu, a teacher at the School of International Journalism and Communication with the Beijing Foreign Studies University, said it's unfair to blame hongbao for sabotaging family reunion.

"When television was invented, people accused it of standing in the way of face-to-face human interaction. The same accusations came up on telephone and text message services when they were first invented. The same goes with digital hongbao," Dong said.

"It does nothing but offers a new way of human interaction. The rest is people's choice. As long as no one expects to earn money from this and takes this as a means of gambling, it's a good way to improve human connections," Dong said.

Email us at: zhouxiaoyan@bjreview.com