外媒看中国 春节微信红包满天飞

 　　Popular messaging service WeChat is hogging¹ the limelight this Chinese New Year — by giving the traditions typical of this festive² period a facelift.

　　这个农历新年，大众短信服务平台“微信”抢尽了风头——使节日的传统习俗焕然一新。

　　As technology has altered the way people in China carry out certain traditions during Chinese New Year, at no point is it clearer that Weixin, the version of WeChat available in the country, has emerged as a frontrunner in the wave of change.

　　随着科技对中国人庆祝新年习俗方式的改变，微信——中国的微聊媒介，可谓劲头十足，俨然成为这次变革的弄潮儿。

　　The Weixin team came upon a brilliant idea of taking the Chinese New Year tradition of gifting money into the digital era. Basically, rather than (or, perhaps, in addition to) giving red envelopes of money to family and friends, Weixin users could tap into digital payments and send monetary³ gifts of up to CNY100 (around $16.50) per go to others on the chat app.

　　微信团队突发创想，将中国新年送红包的传统融入了数字时代。大体上，除向亲朋好友分发红包外，微信用户还可选择电子支付方式向微信圈内的好友派发红包，红包金额可高达100元（约16.5美元）。

　　State media Xinhua reports (hat/tip Tech in Asia) that the first two days of Chinese New Year saw more than five million people across China taking part in Weixin’s online red envelope activity, with more than 20 million red envelopes handed out, according to data from Tencent, the company that owns WeChat.

　　官方媒体新华社报道，仅在新年的前两天，全国就有500多万人参与了微信线上抢红包活动，共分发了2000多万个红包。该数据来自微信的开发方腾讯公司。

　　At its peak, 585,000 people took part in gifting red envelopes over a mere⁴ five minutes on Weixin, with 121,000 red envelopes being claimed. The messaging service has an estimated 500 million plus registered users in China alone, while it has 270 million active users worldwide.

　　在高峰期，仅5分钟内就有58.5万名微信用户参与了发红包活动，其中成功抢到的红包有12.1万个。据估计，该短信平台在中国有5亿多名注册用户，全球约有2.7亿名活跃用户。

　　Another tradition has been entirely⁵ revamped by Weixin as well.

　　微信同时还为另一个传统习俗注入了全新活力。

　　It is customary to send New Year well-wishes to your friends on the eve of Chinese New Year — and this year, a whopping 10 million messages were sent in one minute at peak on the eve of Chinese New Year via Weixin. The number of messages sent this year on the chat app was double that of last year, showing that more people are flocking to the app instead of sending cards or SMS-es.

　　中国的传统习俗，除夕要向朋友发送新春祝福。但是今年除夕，在高峰期，1分钟内竟有多达1000万条的短信是通过微信发送出去的。今年通过微信平台发送出去的短信数量是去年的一倍，这说明较之贺卡或手机短信，越来越多的人倾向于微信平台了。

　　Chinese New Year is a time steeped in tradition, and the fact that Weixin has managed to make its presence so strongly welcomed by users speaks volumes about its ability to straddle the space between old and new.

　　中国新年是庆贺传统的时刻，然而微信却成功获得了推广并受到了用户的热烈喜爱，这也大大证明了微信跨越新旧的能力。

　　As WeChat moves into verticals⁶ such as m-commerce, it wouldn’t be any surprise if the app soon disrupts other traditions next year. Who knows, we may just get to see Chinese New Year grocery shopping or delivery, or the booking of transportation back to people’s hometowns, done entirely via WeChat in the future.

　　随着微信应用到诸如“移动商务”等相关领域，相信明年会有更多传统习俗被注入新的时尚。说不定，以后的年货采购派发或回家车票预订都能在微信上搞定呢！

1 hogging   

n.弯[翘]曲，挠度，扭曲；拱曲

参考例句：

• At first glance, the spotlight-hogging boss seems the villain. 乍一看，好抢镜头的上司似乎是个反面人物。 来自辞典例句
• This guy has been 5 hogging the bathroom for 25 minutes! 那家伙霸占着洗手间25分钟了！ 来自互联网

2 festive   

adj.欢宴的，节日的

参考例句：

• It was Christmas and everyone was in festive mood.当时是圣诞节，每个人都沉浸在节日的欢乐中。
• We all wore festive costumes to the ball.我们都穿着节日的盛装前去参加舞会。

3 monetary   

adj.货币的，钱的；通货的；金融的；财政的

参考例句：

• The monetary system of some countries used to be based on gold.过去有些国家的货币制度是金本位制的。
• Education in the wilderness is not a matter of monetary means.荒凉地区的教育不是钱财问题。

4 mere   

adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过

参考例句：

• That is a mere repetition of what you said before.那不过是重复了你以前讲的话。
• It's a mere waste of time waiting any longer.再等下去纯粹是浪费时间。

5 entirely   

ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The fire was entirely caused by their neglect of duty. 那场火灾完全是由于他们失职而引起的。
• His life was entirely given up to the educational work. 他的一生统统献给了教育工作。

6 verticals   

垂直线，垂直位置( vertical的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Monorail vehicles and ships use gyro verticals for stabilization. 独轨车辆及船舶上使用陀螺垂直器作为稳定之用。
• The pendulum-torque type of erector is extensively employed on gyro verticals. 陀螺垂直器上广泛地采用由摆和力矩马达组成的修正装置。