Digital yuan helps stimulate consumption during Spring Festival

A booth promoting the use of e-CNY attracts visitors during an industry expo in Tianjin. (Photo/China News Service)

Localities in China that piloted the use of the digital yuan, or e-CNY, launched a number of promotional activities using the innovative version of China's national currency during the Spring Festival, effectively stimulating consumption.

Local governments in Guangdong, Zhejiang, Jiangsu and Shandong provinces issued e-CNY coupons, whose total value was estimated to exceed 180 million yuan (about $26.69 million). Hangzhou, capital of east China's Zhejiang Province and Shenzhen, a metropolis in south China's Guangdong Province, both boosted the catering sector through e-CNY, with the latter offering coupons totaling 100 million yuan.

The e-CNY-based promotion covered a wide range of fields including telecommunication, daily necessities, transportation and tourism, in nearly 200 promotional activities, according to a rough estimate.

Statistics from Meituan, a leading e-commerce platform for services in China, showed that e-CNY-related orders on the platform during the Spring Festival holiday, which ran from Jan. 21 to 27, increased nearly four times compared to the last Spring Festival holiday, with the number of e-CNY users growing more than fivefold and the e-CNY transaction volume growing 6.2 times respectively year on year.

In addition, “red packets” and vouchers were used in over 20,000 micro, small and medium-sized businesses on the platform. Many consumers shopped for various kinds of products using the digital yuan, and shared their purchases on social media platforms.

Mr. Wu, who lives in Beijing, explained that he received a digital red packet worth 88 yuan in a promotional activity co-organized by Meituan and some banks, which he used to buy fruits and other goods for his family.

A series of eye-catching and auspicious digital red packet covers were released for the Spring Festival, prompting many to use the e-CNY rather than cash to prepare red packets, a monetary gift given to younger generations during the festival. "I've decided to always give digital red packets to my children instead of cash," said a woman surnamed Li, who is in her 60’s, in Yancheng city, east China's Jiangsu Province. "It is easy to work, and the covers look great," she added.