Gift giving goes digital

About 75 percent of Chinese people are planning to give digital red envelopes of gift money as they welcome the Year of the Rooster, a significant increase from last year's 30 percent, according to an annual study on consumers' spending intentions.

United Overseas Bank's annual Lunar New Year survey shows that fun and novelty (59 percent) and convenience (57 percent) were the top reasons to send digital red envelopes. The main recipients of digital red envelopes will be friends and colleagues/employees (45 percent), children (35 percent) and relatives' children (30 percent).

The survey was conducted by Ipsos, a research services provider, which interviewed 1,000 consumers in Shanghai and Beijing aged between 18 and 55 in December.