In 2008, Alibaba founder Jack Ma famously declared, “if the banks don’t change, we will change the banks.” His words sparked an entrepreneurial renaissance in China’s fintech industry. ‘Fintech’ (金融科技), a portmanteau of financial technology, refers to the application of new technologies to “improve and automate the delivery of financial services.” Since Ma’s pronouncement, mainland China has produced eight fintech ‘unicorns,’ collectively worth 214.6 billion USD. Although each of these companies works to reimagine a different aspect of banking, on the whole, Chinese fintech has two objectives: to maximize the economic potential of China’s banked, while integrating the country’s remaining unbanked. This piece profiles some of the fintech unicorns engaged in this mission — specifically within two sectors, lending and payments — and explores the global implications of their innovation. content by Marco Marsans via: csis.org
China plans to build pioneering fintech hubs nationwide, focusing on the research and development of blockchain technology and digital currency to boost investment in financial infrastructure, according to officials and experts
CB Insights China data shows that since 2013, the scale of China’s fintech revenue has been rising. In 2018 and 2019, the scale of China’s fintech revenue was 9698.8 billion and 14.365 billion yuan, respectively, and it is expected to rise to nearly 2 trillion yuan in 2020. . In terms of scale, China’s fintech industry has taken a leading position in the world. source: biia.com
HONGKONG
ASIA’S WORLD CITY
