Need motivation to save? Now you can follow a fictional interactive script on Alipay Wallet (支付宝小荷包) and save while choosing your own adventure and progressing in a storyline.
At the end of July, the savings service “Little Purse” of the Alibaba payment platform Alipay introduced an innovative way to combine saving with games. The feature is called “剧本攒” (jubenzan, literally: scripted saving, a pun on “jubensha” 剧本杀 or crime games) and offers various stories from workplace survival to romantic comedies to “reincarnation” as a star, all popular genres in online novels, games and microdramas. The difference is that you save with the “small wallet”, while online novels and microdramas require a subscription or fee to unlock. Depending on your options when selecting dialogues or actions, you can save different amounts.
The inspiration for the savings adventure game comes from an online trend this year called “Pretend and Save” (假装存钱). Users invent stories and scenarios to motivate themselves. Some pretend to have a child, others a pet, or something more imaginative, such as a princess from a war-torn country who is forced to work as a refugee in a fast-food chain abroad. When she earns her first 30 RMB, The player saves 30 RMB (4.18 USD) in his real bank account. Some would also share their stories on Xiaohongshu (RED) so that people can follow the plot and save as well.
Interestingly, previous reports also mentioned that Little Purse is one of the platforms where the trend is happening, as it allows people to easily save small amounts. It’s great to see the platform embracing the trend and capitalizing on people’s interest, albeit a few months late. But since the platform is asking internet users for more story ideas, it could take off and serve as a great example of gamification.
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