Alipay expands virtual fortune card collection campaign

Alipay, a major online-payment platform in China, is expanding its signature annual virtual fortune card collection campaign to celebrate the upcoming Chinese New Year, featuring 29 sets of cards themed on notable brands, figures and IPs from across the world, the company announced in Shanghai on Wednesday.

Commonly known as "ji wufu" in Chinese, which literally means "collecting five fortune cards", this campaign aims to create a digital Chinese New Year's custom and has been popular among the Chinese since it was launched in 2016. A cumulative total of 900 million users have participated in this campaign over the past decade, according to the company.

As a celebration for Chinese New Year, Alipay users, both domestic and international, can join in the campaign easily. Users can receive a virtual fortune card when they use the app to scan anything with the Chinese character "fu", which usually appears in Chinese New Year's decorations. Those who manage to collect the full set of five different cards will be eligible to win cash rewards in the form of virtual red packets to be opened on Chinese New Year's Eve.

And this year, running from Jan 20 to Feb 2, this campaign is expanding. In addition to the recurring set of "fu" cards, another 28 sets of themed cards will be open for collection. Users are allowed to choose their favorite five themes for the card collection, with extra card obtaining methods such as scanning objects with the theme and making payment with the Alipay Tap function. Cash rewards and special gifts will be offered on the complete collection of each set of the cards, said Alipay.

The 28 themes include notable brands, games, sports figures and IPs such as NBA, Marvel Comics, Pop Mart, Love and Deepspace, Nailong, Ultraman, chiikawa, zanmang loopy, Lego, as well as Chinese Olympic champions including Zheng Qinwen and Sun Yingsha.

It is also worth noting that foreigners in China and overseas users are both eligible to join the campaign using the Alipay app, and will gain the same experience as Chinese users.

"With the campaign, we would like to invite friends from all over the world to feel the Chinese New Year vibe and the charm of traditional Chinese culture. We can see that the biggest change of this year's campaign is the diversity of the card themes. Combining brands with diverse elements, from various parts of the world and catering to different demands, we are hoping to unite people from across the world together to enjoy the new digital Chinese New Year's customs," said Liu Shan from the department of public relations and communication at Alipay.