Nearly 800m people went online to send money to friends and relatives over the Chinese New Year festival as technology continues to permeate even the most ancient of traditions in China.

Tencent, one of China’s duo of tech titans, said 768m people sent and received hongbao, over Weixin Pay, its third party payments business, during the six day holiday period. Typically people will hand out scores or even hundreds of honbgbao: according to Tencent, one man sent 2,723 while another received 3,429. 

The mass migration to digital hongbao – initiated four years ago by Tencent – highlights the explosion of making payments with the swipe of a phone in China, where even beggars accept alms by proffering a QR code to passers-by. The market was estimated to be worth $15.5trn last year, utterly dwarfing those in the US and other countries.