Shenzhen Futian Distributes 20 Million Digital Yuan in Red Envelopes

Futian District in the city of Shenzhen issued 20 million digital yuan to eligible local citizens in 100,000 red envelopes, each with a value of 200 yuan, marking the second time the city of Shenzhen, one of China’s major financial hubs, participated in an official e-yuan pilot in the form of red envelopes.

The appointment for the Futian digital yuan opened on the first day of the new year and closed at 10 a.m. on Jan. 4, Beijing local time. A total of 1,861,758 individuals in the city completed the appointment registration through the “iShenzhen” online platform.

Starting at 8 a.m. on Jan. 7, winning individuals of the e-yuan lottery received text messages from the Shenzhen Government SMS Platform, providing them the download link for the Digital Yuan App. The winning rate of the lottery was about 5.37%.

The red envelope is required to be used from 8 a.m. on Jan. 7 to midnight of Jan. 17 at more than 10,000 designated merchants that have completed the digital currency system transformation in Shenzhen.

Futian District has previously engaged in digital yuan trials. As early as May 2020, the District started to pay digital currency to part of the salaries of the local civil servants. And in July last year, digital currency was applied in local charity work and consumption.

SEE ALSO: Shenzhen Selects 50,000 Individuals to Participate in Digital Yuan Pilot Program

Then in September, the digital yuan was also promoted in the service center located in the Shenzhen-Hong Kong Science and Technology Innovation Cooperation Zone.

The first official pilot program was conducted in Luohu District last October, where 10 million digital yuan red envelopes were issued to a total of 50,000 locals.

“Futian carries 12.4% of the city’s population with less than 4% of the city’s area and contributes 25% of the city’s total consumption volume”, said Shu Yumin, Futian District Deputy Mayor.

In December last year, Suzhou also launched a digital currency red envelope trial and Beijing followed up the e-yuan pilot in a coffee shop in Lize Financial Business District.