AliPay launched a free service this week which allowed users to generate a profile based on their shopping history; users who signed up were automatically enrolled in their credit-scoring system called Sesame Credit unless they unchecked a box; this led to an outcry from users and a subsequent apology from the company; Bloomberg shares how this highlights a broader concern over transparency of user data in the country. Source
Ant Financial is looking to raise a new $5bn round that would take the company’s value north of $100bn; the FT reports that the new round might begin later this month; if the valuation is as much the company would be worth more than Uber who right now is worth about $68bn; the biggest reason behind such a lofty valuation is the data collected on users according to Thomas Olsen, partner at Bain consultancy. Source.
PayPal just launched what it calls a super app. It has a cash account with a 0.40% interest rate, direct deposit, money movement, bill pay, and remittance features. It also integrates shopping functionality with rewards and cash back. In this analysis, we compare this offering with Google Pay and Square Cash App, as well as trace the DNA of PayPal to understand whether such an offering will succeed where others failed.
Ant Financial is building a new platform for selling money market funds online; it is also introducing "Fortune Accounts" which will sell a broad range of investment products to Chinese consumers through its wealth management app; the first companies to partner for the Fortune Accounts are Bosera Funds, Aegon-Industrial Fund, Tianhong Fund, China Southern Fund and CCB Principal Fund with more companies to be added in June when the platform launches; Ant Financial says it plans to only develop technology to improve platforms for financial institutions, branding itself as a techfin company with no plans to develop its own financial services. Source
One of Ant Financial’s subsidiaries is Zhima or Sesame Credit; it is a private third party credit scoring service and clarified that it does not share user scores or underlying data with any third party including the government without the user’s prior consent; they point out in their response that they also do not monitor the content of users’ social media posts and share how the service works. Source
In this week’s WeiyangX Fintech Review from Crowdfund Insider they cover financial inclusion platform FINUP’s IPO listing on Hong Kong;...
Vanguard and Ant Financial have a joint venture and have created a new robot adviser to market to Ant’s 900...
Standard Chartered and Ant Financial signed a memorandum of understanding to expand their fintech reach in the Belt and Road Initiative; as Banking Technology reports the details are not flushed out yet but they are looking to broaden access to financial services in countries where the Belt and Road Initiative reaches; the companies have already partnered on funding settlement, FX services and Alipay Wallet. Source.
This week, we look at:
The 10% collapse in GDP across the US & Eurozone, and how it compares with China's second quarter
The geopolitical battle over TikTok, its alleged spying, and understanding the winners and losers of the Microsoft deal
A framework for how to win in open source competition, explaining both Shenzhen manufacturing success and decentralized finance growth to $4 billion
It had been rumored for some time now. Ant Financial, the Chinese financial behemoth, was raising a very large funding...