Baidu doubles daily users to 300 million overnight with CNY campaign
Baidu doubled the daily active users on its app to reach 300 million overnight as a result of a Chinese New Year promotional campaign.
Baidu daily active users surged after CNY promotion
China’s search giant partnered with the state-owned broadcaster CCTV, for its New Year’s Gala programme to promote its campaign which offered RMB 900m ($133m) in cash prizes.
The promotion, which took place on Lunar New Year, encouraged users to download Baidu’s app and follow instructions to win cash prizes in hong bao (red envelopes).
During the four-hour gala programme, which is the most watched entertainment show in the world, 100 million users received a red envelope containing RMB 20.19 ($3) while 10,000 users won RMB 2019 ($299), according to Yahoo Finance.
The promotion saw Baidu’s daily active users surge to 300 million overnight.
Baidu’s CNY activity joins similar campaigns by tech rivals Alibaba and Tencent, which use red envelope campaigns to gift money to customers and drive greater engagement with their platforms.
Alipay’s campaign encouraged users to collect virtual “lucky cards” with 330 million users entering a draw to split RMB 500m ($74 million).