Shenzhen has launched a second digital currency promotion to its citizens as China scales up its plans to circulate the digital RMB.
The digital RMB red envelopes campaign, which took place to celebrate the new year, was open to residents in the Futian District of Shenzhen.
From January 1, residents could register on the iShenzhen platform to participate in the lottery and be in with the chance of winning one of 100,000 red envelopes filled with 200 digital RMB. Successful applicants will be able to spend the money at around 10,000 offline stores in Shenzhen from January 7 to 17.
Authorities hope to accelerate the push toward adopting digital currency after an initial pilot scheme in October 2020. In the first lottery, a government initiative organised with the central People’s Bank of China (PBC), 10 million digital RMB were distributed to Shenzhen residents.
Suzhou also conducted a similar campaign releasing red envelopes filled with digital currency which was launched by the United Central Bank of Suzhou City. The campaign resulted in 18.96 million digital RMB being consumed, of which 55% was spent at offline stores.
Read more about China’s uptake of digital currency in our interview with Yassine Regragui.
