Internet reshapes Chinese financial landscape

Want China Times, Xinhua 2014-07-08

A payment made through a mobile payment service. (File photo/CNS)

From buying dinners through various apps to managing personal finances on smartphones, internet finance has permeated daily life in China.

Now, a report in the latest edition of Beijing-published Caijing Magazine has labeled internet finance an "overthrowing of tradition," backed by surging transactions online.

The value of transactions via online banking services reached 352.1 trillion yuan (US$57.1 trillion) in the first quarter of this year in China, up 7.8% from the previous quarter, the report said, citing data from Analysys, a provider of information services for China's internet market. The nation's top four state-owned commercial banks accounted for more than 70% of the market share.

Cell phone banking services saw even faster growth in the first quarter, with their value topping 5.5 trillion yuan (US$886 billion), up 23.1% quarter on quarter, the data showed. China Construction Bank, the country's second-largest lender, led in mobile banking transactions with a 33.6% market share, according to Analysys.

But the most eye-catching growth has come from mobile payment transactions via third-party payment platforms. Mobile payment services, offered by leaders such as Alibaba's Alipay and Tencent's Tenpay, hit 1.63 trillion yuan (US$262 billion) in the first quarter, up 110.5% from the previous quarter, the data showed.