Today, many netizens discovered that the red envelopes shared by Yuanbao on WeChat could not be opened normally, and the window would display the prompt message "The content of the webpage contains content that induces sharing, following and other inducing behaviors. Please press and hold the URL to copy and access it with a browser."
In this regard, WeChat officially issued the "Announcement on Crackdown on Third-Party Violations" and mentioned that it will crack down on violations such as excessive marketing and induced sharing that broke out with the theme of the Spring Festival.
WeChat officially stated that we have received feedback and complaints from users about Yuanbao. Its related Spring Festival marketing activities include scenarios such as inducing users to frequently share links to WeChat groups through "doing tasks" and "receiving red envelopes", interfering with the ecological order of the platform, affecting user experience, and causing harassment to users.
WeChat official stated that according to the "WeChat External Link Content Management Specifications" 2.1.2, inducing users to share and spread external links through profit temptations, including but not limited to: inducing users with monetary rewards, physical prizes, virtual prizes, etc. (including but not limited to red envelopes, coupons, vouchers, points, phone charges, traffic, information) Sharing; claiming that sharing can increase lottery chances, winning probability, and success possibility; inducing users to share and spreading external links by checking in, inviting friends to assist (including but not limited to assisting, bargaining, and accelerating), setting collection tasks (including but not limited to collecting likes, collecting cards, collecting blessings, and collecting fragments) and spreading external links is a violation of induced sharing.
WeChat officials pointed out that after research and judgment, Yuanbao’s illegal links were dealt with and restricted from being opened directly in WeChat. Relevant disposal measures will take effect immediately.
We will continue to pay attention to the operation of various Spring Festival marketing activities, combine user feedback, and ensure user experience in accordance with platform rules.
It is reported that WeChat is led by Zhang Xiaolong and Yuanbao App is led by Wu Zurong. Wu Zurong serves as a product manager at Tencent and has led the incubation and rapid growth of Tencent Conference from 0 to 1. In January 2025, Tencent adjusted the Yuanbao App team from TEG to CSIG. Lori Wu, vice president of Tencent Cloud and head of Tencent Conference, officially became the product manager of Yuanbao, fully leading the product capability building, experience optimization and overall business direction of Yuanbao App; the underlying technology of large models is still supported by the Hunyuan team and others. Public reports generally position him as Yuanbao's "number one position" and "product helmsman".