Digital ‘red envelopes’ China’s tech giants reported more user participation in the digital “red envelopes” during the Spring Festival holiday as Chinese zealously* snatched* lucky money for good fortune. Some 450 million people participated in the game of collecting “five blessings” on payment platform Alipay to receive lucky money offered by Internet giant Alibaba, up 40 percent year on year, according to Ant Financial, Alibaba’s finance arm. WeChat, a popular instant messaging app by Tencent, another prominent player in the mobile payment realm, saw the number of red envelopes sent or received increase by 7.12 percent year on year to 823 million from February 4 to Saturday, a report carried by the Economic Information Daily. Mobile apps Primary and middle schools in Beijing should carry out thorough inspections* of all apps, WeChat groups and QQ groups that students use, as well as the WeChat and Weibo public accounts they follow to ensure the mobile tools will not harm students’ physical or psychological health. Education authorities in Beijing should submit a report on their progress to the Beijing Municipal Education Commission by March 1, the commission said. Apps that contain pornography*, violence, online games, commercial advertisements or that increase students’ academic burdens are to be banned, it said. Drivers banned A total of 17,264 Chinese were banned from driving for life in 2018, according to the Ministry of Public Security. Among them, a total of 5,149 were caught drunk driving in serious traffic accidents and faced criminal prosecution*, said a ministry statement published at a press conference. The remaining 12,115 were involved in serious hit and run cases, the statement said. Moon’s far side The Chang’e-4 probe, having made the first-ever soft landing on moon’s far side, found that the temperature of the lunar surface dropped to as low as minus 190 degrees centigrade, colder than expected. This is the first time Chinese scientists have received first-hand data about the temperatures on the surface of the moon during the lunar night. (SD-Agencies) | 