Following our popular report on the recent use of coffee as a bribe to drum up interest in adopters for China’s new Digital RMB, authorities in Nanjing are going a step further by giving away actual cash. Typo! That should be “virtual cash”.
This time around, it’s Jiangbei New Area in Nanjing behind the giveaway. They have 18,000 Digital RMB red envelopes up for grabs, totalling a cool ¥2.2 million. Online registration begins tomorrow, 24 February, at 10:00.
But we’re not talking about a major sweepstakes here. Instead, the handouts take two forms; Digital RMB discount vouchers and actual gifts of money.
The red-envelope distribution platform for the promotion is the ICBC, while there are also only six locations where the prizes may be redeemed. They include the Sandboat Jiangbei Outlets, Yonghui Supermarket and the Yangtze River Congress Centre Hotel.
The not-so-cool discount vouchers are valued thus; ¥400 discount on a spend of ¥1,000, ¥200 on a spend of ¥500, ¥100 on a spend of ¥200 and ¥50 on a spend of ¥100. Some 16,000 such vouchers shall be distributed, to a total value of ¥1.8 million.
Then there are 2,000 actual gifts, with no spend required, each valued at ¥200, for a total of ¥400,000.
The big question of course is how to take part in the big Nanjing Jiangbei Digital RMB giveaway?
Step one is to follow a participating WeChat official account, such as “Investment in Jiangbei” (投资江北), “Nanjing Jiangbei New Area” (南京江北新区) or “Nanjing Consumer Announcements” (南京消费发布).
Then send to the account in question the message, “Digital RMB Red Packet” (in Chinese; 数字人民币红包), at exactly 10:00 tomorrow, 24 February, and/or the following day, 25 February, to take part in the draw for the discount vouchers.
Participation time for the actual gifts is set for 20:00 tomorrow, 24 February, only. Full details (in Chinese) can be found in this report by Nanjing Daily.
Limber up your fingers, because prizes are to be awarded on the basis of first come, first served.