“This year, no gifts for the New Year; the only gift is the Little Blue Packet!”
Ahead of the Spring Festival, with the launch of WeChat's “gift sending” feature, this social gifting format, dubbed the “Little Blue Packet” by netizens, quickly went viral, becoming the first hit to flood social media in 2025. The explosion of WeChat's Little Blue Packet is seen as a win-win for merchants and users under the powerful traffic of a social platform, creating a new paradigm for social gifting. What does this mean for the wine industry, which also has strong social attributes? How should the wine industry seize this Spring Festival gifting marketing dividend?
Launch! The First Hit of 2025 to Flood Social Media At the turn of the year, WeChat quietly launched a “trump card feature”: On December 17 last year, the WeChat Shop Growth Center released a notice about the gray-scale testing of the “gift sending” feature. Except for jewelry and education/training categories, all other categories in WeChat Shop, with original prices not exceeding 10,000 yuan, support the “gift sending” feature by default. By January this year, the WeChat Little Blue Packet gifting feature was upgraded again, with the entry point moved directly to the chat page, placed alongside WeChat Red Packets. Subsequently, the Little Blue Packet continued to iterate, enriching application scenarios. The latest feature shows that users can now send Little Blue Packets in group chats, just like sending Red Packets. As a social giant with over 1.3 billion users, WeChat provides a huge market space for the Little Blue Packet. Combined with important festivals like the Spring Festival, this trump card naturally sparked heated discussions, repeatedly trending on hot searches, and being called “the first hit of 2025 to flood social media.” A widely circulated “WeChat E-commerce Meeting Minutes” mentioned that within less than a week of the Little Blue Packet's large-scale opening, whitelisted users exceeded 300 million, with cumulative reach of over 40 million users. On December 19 alone, nearly 2 million users placed orders through this feature, and GMV (Gross Merchandise Volume) reached nearly 400 million yuan by that day. Although Tencent denied this, saying the Little Blue Packet has “no grand plans,” this astonishing data reminds people of the glorious achievements of WeChat Red Packets in 2014. Back then, with the Red Packet feature, WeChat attracted over 30 million users to bind bank cards within a week, achieving what was described as “WeChat accomplished in one week what Alipay took ten years to do.” Therefore, many speculate that the Little Blue Packet might replicate the explosive success of WeChat Red Packets from ten years ago. Consequently, “WeChat Shop” concept stocks soared, with Shiyida hitting six consecutive limit-ups, Laiyifen four limit-ups in six days, and Weimob Group's stock price doubling in four days... In fact, sending gifts is not WeChat's innovation; Taobao and Douyin have similar features, and even Tencent itself invested in an e-commerce platform called “Gift Talk” in 2014. But why did only the Little Blue Packet become a hit? The reason is simple: “social.” WeChat's social attributes far exceed those of other platforms, and gift-giving is inherently social, making it a better fit for WeChat's ecosystem. Through the Little Blue Packet, WeChat connects users' social chains with consumption behavior, and behind its 1.3 billion users lies enormous business opportunities. Especially at a time when growth on major e-commerce platforms is peaking, this method of seeding through interpersonal relationships and social networks is even more valuable.
Viral! Is the Wine Industry Ready to Send Little Blue Packets? The Spring Festival is the most important traditional festival for Chinese people, and giving gifts during this time has always been a traditional way to convey warmth and blessings. The value of the Little Blue Packet lies in solving the awkwardness of asking for addresses when sending gifts to convey emotions. For the sender, after clicking the “Send Gift” icon in the chat window, they can directly select a desired gift, and after payment, the gift is automatically sent to the chat page, with an icon similar to WeChat Red Packet but in blue. For the recipient, just like receiving a Red Packet, they click “Accept Gift” and fill in their address to wait for delivery, without any additional cost, and the sender cannot see the recipient's address or personal information. WeChat, with its unique social scenarios, activates the attribute of gifts as emotional connections between people, and also activates the immense social value of brands, creating a new paradigm for social gifting, attracting a large number of brands to follow suit. For the wine industry, social attributes are the primary and most important attribute of wine, and the Little Blue Packet is considered naturally compatible with wine. This means through the Little Blue Packet, you can raise a glass with friends in your WeChat list in a new “long-distance gifting” form, enhancing friendship. The Spring Festival is a critical period for wine marketing, and how to seize this golden opportunity for Spring Festival gifting marketing has become a focus of industry attention. In this regard, Fubao San Gen Ren Shen Jiu (Fubao Three Ginseng Wine) has set an example.
In terms of brand positioning, Fubao San Gen Ren Shen Jiu, a 52-proof Luzhou pure grain liquor with three Changbai Mountain fresh ginseng roots, fits the Spring Festival atmosphere of “gifting health.” As the first wine brand to enter the “WeChat Blue Packet” space, it immediately launched the “Watch Spring Festival Gala on Tencent, Get 2 Million in Subsidies” activity. The regular price of 299 yuan per box of 12 bottles (158ml each) of Fubao San Gen Ren Shen Jiu can be reduced by 200 yuan by scanning a QR code to claim a coupon. “Ginseng in the wine, gifting with pride” is their Spring Festival slogan, perfectly blending the health concept of ginseng wine with the festive atmosphere of Spring Festival gift-giving, making this wine suitable for family reunions. Fubao has introduced a complete standard process for Little Blue Packets, allowing users to send gifts in just four easy steps, and also facilitating the wine industry to “copy the homework.” At the same time, Fubao Wine has meticulously sorted out and mobilized the entire supply chain, production, and logistics processes to ensure delivery within 48 hours during the Spring Festival, providing wine enthusiasts with a new option for New Year gifting.
In terms of product features, Fubao San Gen Ren Shen Jiu meets the contemporary demand for “gifting quality.” Ginseng, known as the “king of herbs,” is a precious medicinal material for strengthening the body and prolonging life, and ginseng wine is regarded as a tonic that replenishes vital energy, warms the meridians, and treats various deficiencies. Crafted with “southern wine and northern ginseng,” Fubao San Gen Ren Shen Jiu achieved multiple firsts in 2024: the first enterprise to engage in high-tech ginseng cultivation, the first ginseng wine company to nationalize its layout, the first ginseng wine company to label ginsenoside content on bottles, the first ginseng wine company with a 100,000-level GMP (pharmaceutical-grade) filling workshop, and the leader in offline coverage and sales of ginseng liqueur. It has also established stable relationships with internationally renowned institutions and universities in the ginseng industry, conducting technical cooperation and actively participating in the formulation of multiple industry standards, driving quality innovation and upgrading across the industry.
On social platforms, the efforts of Fubao San Gen Ren Shen Jiu have been highly recognized by wine enthusiasts, and sending Fubao San Gen Ren Shen Jiu as a Spring Festival Little Blue Packet has become a trend. Through social media dissemination and fission, it has significantly enhanced the brand's visibility and favorability. As one wine enthusiast commented: “Good wine with good ginseng, sending blessings and health. Fubao San Gen Ren Shen Jiu not only solves the annual problem of choosing and sending gifts during the Spring Festival but also lets everyone truly have a blessed and healthy New Year.” Wouldn't you like such a “blessing” gift for the Spring Festival?