# Tencent
Latest news and articles about Tencent
Total: 52 articles found
China’s Tech Giants Turn Spring Festival into an AI‑Fuelled Red‑Envelope Arms Race
China’s leading tech platforms have launched an extraordinary Lunar New Year promotional battle that blends cash red packets, steep discounts and AI features, with announced spends approaching 10 billion yuan (~$1.4bn). The campaigns aim not only to drive immediate consumption but to train users on AI interactions and lock them into each firm’s ecosystem.
Tencent Plants an AI Assistant in Group Chats — Turns NBA All‑Star into a Live Social Experiment
Tencent has embedded its AI assistant into Yuanbao Party to offer shared, AI‑augmented viewing of the 2026 NBA All‑Star weekend, tying live sports streaming to the company’s broader social and content ecosystem. The move coincides with a larger Lunar New Year “AI traffic” battle that mixes subsidies and product experiments, and it follows publication of a Tencent‑led benchmark showing current models struggle to learn consistently from conversational context.
China’s New Year Becomes AI’s Debut Season: Giants Gamble Billions and Workers Guard the Servers
China’s tech giants turned the Spring Festival into a high-stakes field test for generative AI, deploying billions in marketing and integrations while backend engineers worked through the holiday to prevent compute-driven outages. The event may mark a pivot from model-building to mass application, accelerating consolidation and everyday use of AI across social, local and entertainment services.
Tencent’s Yuanbao Restores Red‑Packet Sharing to WeChat as App Update Reopens Copying of Codes
Tencent updated its Yuanbao app on February 7 to allow sharing red‑packet links into Yuanbao Pai and restored WeChat’s ability to copy Yuanbao red‑packet passcodes after a brief period when such codes were non‑copyable. The move reverses a constraint introduced on February 6 that had curbed how third‑party services distribute viral red‑packet promotions through WeChat.
WeChat Cuts Off Ma Huateng’s Viral Push: Yuanbao’s Red‑Envelope Stunt Blocked for Disrupting Chats
WeChat has blocked Yuanbao’s direct red‑envelope links after users complained about aggressive, task‑based sharing that flooded chats and groups. Yuanbao quickly pivoted to a password‑based sharing model, but the move raised questions about internal alignment at Tencent and the limits of viral acquisition inside dominant platforms.
WeChat Blocks Tencent’s Yuanbao Red‑Envelope Push, Underscoring Platform First Rule
WeChat has restricted direct opening of links from Tencent’s Yuanbao app, after the app’s New Year ‘red‑envelope’ campaign spread via high‑frequency share tasks and drew user complaints. The move exposed a strategic rift within Tencent between a product philosophy that defends user experience and a group push to drive rapid user acquisition through viral mechanics.
Hong Kong Market Pauses as Tech Slips and Cyclicals Rally
Hong Kong's Hang Seng closed essentially flat while the Hang Seng Tech index slid nearly 1.8%, led by declines in semiconductor and internet stocks. Gains in coal and property stocks offset tech losses, signalling a rotation from growth to cyclical assets amid profit-taking and shifting sentiment. The split market reaction highlights investor sensitivity to global tech demand and domestic policy signals for property, suggesting continued volatility ahead.
WeChat Blocks Viral Red‑Packet Links as Tencent Cracks Down on Incentivised Sharing
Tencent limited the ability to open Yuanbao red‑packet campaign links directly in WeChat after user complaints that the promotion used task‑based incentives to induce high‑frequency sharing in group chats. Citing its external link rules against share inducements, Tencent moved to restrict the links while Yuanbao says it is urgently revising its sharing mechanism.
Hang Seng Edges Higher as Tech Stocks Slip and AI Plays Rally
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng closed marginally higher while the Hang Seng Tech Index fell, as AI-related ‘large-model’ stocks and gold miners rallied and major internet platforms like Tencent slid. The session illustrated a market split: speculative AI plays attracted flows even as policy-sensitive mega-cap tech names remained susceptible to rumor-driven volatility.
Alibaba Stakes 3 Billion RMB on 'Action' AI to Win the Spring Festival Battleground
Alibaba is investing RMB 3 billion in a Spring Festival campaign that stitches its Qianwen AI into commerce and local services to serve as an action-capable assistant. The move contrasts with Tencent’s cash-driven social push and ByteDance’s entertainment-focused AI experiences, and could determine which platform secures the mainstream AI entry point in China.
China’s Tech Giants Burn Billions in a New Year ‘Red-Envelope’ Bet to Buy AI Habit
China’s leading tech firms have poured 45 billion yuan into Spring Festival promotions that tie cash rewards to usage of AI assistants, aiming to convert holiday curiosity into habitual use. The campaign marks a strategic shift from traffic grabs to direct competition for the status of ‘AI super‑entry,’ but its long‑term success will depend on retention and differentiated product value.
Tencent’s Billion‑Yuan Red‑Envelope Push: A Sprint to Seed Long‑Term AI Habits
Tencent distributed RMB 1 billion in red envelopes to promote its AI app Yuanbao ahead of the 2026 Lunar New Year, briefly overloading servers and generating broad, short‑term engagement. The campaign bought reach inside Tencent’s vast social graph, but turning festive trials into lasting AI habits will depend on product depth, day‑to‑day usefulness and sustained infrastructure investment.