Nation's technology giants lavish lucky money in race for mobile users

BEIJING - With the Spring Festival fast approaching, many Chinese people are busy collecting red envelopes (hongbao), not from their relatives or friends but from deep-pocketed tech firms.

Domestic tech giants are racing to bank on the time-honored tradition to gain users for their products as competition at home heats up.

Giving cash in red envelopes is a traditional practice during the Spring Festival and it has been shifting online thanks to the promotion of mobile payment in which people use apps to send, snatch and draw virtual hongbao on their smartphones.