China's CBDC wallet uses an old method to get more people to use it.

With the rise of digital payments, a traditional way of giving money as a gift in China has been turned into a digital feature in the digital yuan wallet app.

China's digital yuan central bank digital currency (CBDC) wallet app now lets users send money in an electronic version of the traditional "red packets" This was done to try to get more people to use the app.

South China Morning Post reported on Dec. 26 that the new feature came out over the weekend, about a month before the Chinese New Year on Jan. 22.

"Red packets," which are called "hongbao" in China, are used to give money as a sign of good luck during the Chinese New Year and other celebrations. Popular local services like WeChat Pay and Alipay offer virtual red envelopes because digital payments are becoming more common.

According to reports, the e-CNY app lets you send a red packet to just one person or set up a "lucky draw" for a group of people to get a random amount from a pool of money. WeChat Pay and Alipay both have a similar feature.

Users can choose a packet cover with good wishes for the new year, birthdays, or a "prosperous China" on it.

Digital yuan transactions passed $14 billion (100 billion yuan) on October 10. This is only a 14% increase from the $12 billion (87.6 billion yuan) that the People's Bank of China reported at the end of 2021.

The e-CNY trails will be added to the cities of Jinan, Nanning, Fangchenggang, and Kunming, according to a report in the Chinese Workers' Daily newspaper on December 18. In September, the trials were moved to four provinces, including Guangdong, which has the most people.

Even though the government is quickly expanding the trials, as of January 2022, 261 million people had set up an e-CNY wallet, which is the latest number that has been reported.

The Chinese government may need to use WeChat Pay and Alipay to get more people to use the digital yuan.

Both services accept e-CNY. According to financial reports, WeChat had 1.3 million active users per month in the September quarter, while Alipay had more than 1 billion active users per year in its fiscal year that ended on August 17, 2020.