(Chinese Version)

Recently, Ant Small and Micro Financial Services Group officially announced that its affiliate business in equity crowdfunding, named “Ant 2C”, would be launched soon, another step taken by Alibaba since its launch of hi.taobao (Taobao Crowdfunding) . It is presumed that “Ant 2C” comes for JD crowdfunding, one move forward for Alibaba to foil JD’s ambitions.

Payment Services

Alibaba:

Alipay is so far the biggest mobile payment operator around the globe, which, founded in December 2004, has launched two independent brands— Alipay and Alipay Wallet— under its name. Payment and financial services are provided across many industries including general merchandise, cinema, supermarket chains and car renting, to name but a few, ranging from online shopping secured transactions, online payment, transfer, credit card repayment, cell phone replenishing, utility bill payment and personal finance etc.. Yu’ebao for account balance value-added services, Zhaocaibao for asset management, Yuelebao for cultural industry investment  and other financial products are also taking off.

JD:

JD Payment, a new-generation third party payment product, the former “Online Bank Plus”, was founded in December, 2014, by JD’s online banking system. Compared with Alipay, it is easier to use, for JD payment users only need one bank card registered with a cell phone number and one short message identification to complete payment; no need of online banking payment, third-party account registration and memorization of pins despite the fact that Alipay enjoys a far larger market share. Except for JD’s own online shoppers, few other services have already connected to JD payment.

Mobile Wallet

Alibaba:

Alipay Wallet is a mobile payment platform of Alibaba, a mobile version of Alipay. Probing into barcode, QR code and sound wave technologies, Ali has achieved great progress in NFC (Near Field Communication). Alipay Wallet has so far been widely used in supermarkets, convenient stores, restaurants, barber shops and grocery stores. It is expected that Alipay Wallet would one day overtake Unionpay to become the biggest player in the off-line payment market. On top of that, Alibaba Credit Reference hit the market by the end of January, 2015. Named Zhima Credit (or Sesame Credit), it allows its users to read their own credit ratings by checking their consumption and transfer record.

JD:

In the year 2012, JD purchased Chinabank Payment, a certificated online payment platform, and thus formed its own payment system. On March 7, 2014, JD announced that the PC version of JD Pay was by then available whose mobile version was unveiled days later on March 18. Data put together by JD Pay includes its users’ consumption record, asset management information, consumer credit ratings and investments record. JD Pay in effect is another Alipay.

Online Banking

Alibaba:

Yu’ebao, operated by the third party payment platform Alipay, is a value-added service for personal investors to manage their account balance. Through Yu’ebao users could make money from their balance while cutting their deals and conduct transfers; it’s just as easy as making use of the balance of Alipay.

Launched in April 2014, Zhaocaibao is an open platform for financial information disclosure. Set up by Ant Small & Micro Financial Services Group and operated independently by Shanghai Zhaocaibao Financial Information Services Ltd., Zhaocaibao is now in cooperation with Taobao, Alipay and Tianhong Fund.  Various financial institutions can put up the information of their fixed-term, low-risk financial products (universal life insurance and fund for account management, namely) on Zhaocaibao as long as they abide by the rules and regulations in product development and operation. Businesses like banks and insurance companies can also disclose details of some financing projects on the same platform in which they manage the risks and provide reimbursement guarantee.

Yulebao made its debut on March 26, 2014; its backstage planner is  Alibaba’s digital entertainment group. Just 100 yuan could ensure a netizen to invest in all-the-rage movies and television works with an annual return rate as high as 7%. In essence it is different from Yu’ebao, for Yulebao is fixated on Taobao app, making money by selling stuffs. Part of the money it raises will join trust schemes in order to boost cultural industry chains under Alibaba.

JD:

JD’s Little Vault came out on March 28, 2014. Similar to Alipay, Little Vault allows its users to pool their money to buy monetary funds. Balance in Little Vault can also be used to buy things on JD.com.

Crowdfunding

Alibaba:

On Single’s day, 2013, Taobao launched its own crowdfunding platform called Tao Star Wishes, later changed to Taobao Crowdfunding. Taobao Crowdfunding is a, allegedly speaking, all-encompassing incentive funding platform which, according to its project manager, never charges. On May 19, 2015, Ant Small and Micro Financial Services Group set up Ant2C, its own equity crowdfunding platform.

JD:

Soon after Taobao Crowdfunding made its appearance in March 2015, JD has its own crowdfunding program — JD Crowdfunding. According to zcifc.com , since its launch in July a year ago, JD Crowdfunding for rights and benefits has published nine projects, each raising more than 10 million yuan, and 88 projects, each raising more than a million yuan, with a total investment input worth of more than four hundred million yuan. Over 90% of its projects was launched successfully. In the year 2014, JD has raised 140,314,000 yuan, 31.6% of the total sum raised by crowdfunders at home that year. In March 2015, JD Crowdfunding for equities came out with four units: intelligent hardware, pop culture, aesthetics of life and public welfare.

Micro-lending

Alibaba:

Ali Micro-lending took its innovative steps since June, 2010, and later changed its name into Ant Small and Micro Financial Services as Ali Small and Micro Financial Services began to operate independently from Alibaba. That’s when Ali’s micro-lending took on a new road. It is said by zcifc.com that the target group of Ant is small and micro businesses; therefore Ant mainly engages in projects worth no more than one million yuan. A “310” pattern is drawn to ensure that through Ant, users would only need three minutes to apply for a loan, one minute to receive their money and zero manpower throughout the whole process. Up until the end of 2014, more than a total of 250 billion yuan had been released by Ant to help fund over one million small and micro businesses and individual online shoppers.

JD:

On October 30, 2014, JD announced the launch of JD Microcredit on the tenth Beijing International Finance Expo, together with the debut of its five innovative financial products JD Baobei, JD Lending, JD Little Vault, Chinabank Wallet and JD “Whip-round”Crowdfunding. According to zcifc.com, the rate and quota is pegged at its borrowers’ business conducts which could be indicated by sales volume, sales evaluations and varieties of goods etc.. The upper limit of each loan can reach up to two million yuan, with an annual interest rate between 14% and 24% and loan tenure no more than 12 months.

Consumer finance

Alibaba:

Since January 2015, in collaboration with Taobao and Tmall, Ant Small and Micro Financial Services launched a new product called Ant Check Later, whereby users could buy on credit on Taobao and Tmall in order to achieve the online shopping fantasy; that is, “buy this month, pay the next”. After its connection to Zhima Credit, Ant Check Later could give its users green lights to begin using Ant Check Later and kick-start “Haoqidai”(or Good Futures). Ant Borrow First (Jiebei) was later founded amid April, whereby a loan could be released within three seconds with a top limit of 50,000 yuan; loan money could be turned into cash from the e-account of Alipay. It is believed by zcifc.com that both Ant Check Later and Ant Borrow First belong to the same Ant ecosystem from the root, which in return, reinforce,  improve and replenish the three major operations of Ant — “Deposits, Loans and Remittances”.

JD:

On February 13, 2014, JD Finance launched the beta version of JD Lending. Customers could apply for up to 15,000 yuan through JD Lending while shopping on JD.com. Two payment methods are available, one is to pay within 30 days, the other is to pay by installments ranging from three to 24 months.  For users choosing payment No. 1, no interests are asked to be paid; for users gravitating toward payment No.2, an installment rate of 0.5% becomes a must. At the end of September 2014, JD Lending II, Campus Lending, took up its form. From then on, JD Lending marched into schools.

Online Banks

On September 29, 2014, China Banking Regulatory Commission stated that the in-ferment MYbank project was approved. MYbank was co-initiated by the Ant Group, Shanghai Fuxing Industrial Technology Development Company, Wanxiang Ltd. and Ningbo Jinrun Assets Operation and Management Ltd. Ali’s Ant held a share of 30%. Zcifc.com believed that the IT system of MYbank has been checked clear by the Department of Science and Technology of Zhejiang Banking Regulatory Commission. Approval will be given to the whole program of MYbank before long. By then the MYbank flagship will be preparing for its virgin voyage.

Internet + Insurance

Alibaba:

On March 4, 2013, Zhong’an Online Property Insurance, kicked-off by Alibaba, Tencent and Ping’an Insurance Company of China, was given the official permission. In terms of ownership structure, Alibaba, who initiated the project, held a share of more than 19.9% and became the sole biggest major stakeholder. The launch of Zhong’an Online could probably be the next breakthrough compared with the current business model of insurance companies. No branch institutions shall be set up while all the sales and claims will be settled completely online; liability insurance and credit insurance are the two major insurances to be dealt with. Two kinds of products will be considered: one is based on internet; the other is based on internet of things.

JD:

JD has turned their eyes to insurance since January 2013. Strategic cooperation contracts have been signed between JD and CPIC, Ping’an Insurance as well as PICC, to name but a few. So far insurances covered by JD include accident insurance, health insurance, maternal insurance and motor insurance etc. with a total SKU (Stock Keeping Unit) of more than 30. On April 20, 2014, JD launched the very first crowdfunding insurance project to better safeguard and promote its crowdfunding platform.

Internet + Securites

On May 18, Caimi (or money-grabber) , JD’s new product for financial stocks, came out suggesting its ambitions to move into the securities market. In fact, Alipay Wallet has once launched its own app to facilitate stockholders to read the tape. However, since the launch of Caimi, Ali’s Ant revealed that they are actually in the process of developing stock-trading apps, so it’s only a matter of time for Alipay’s users to read their tapes with the help of Alipay Wallet.

Zcifc.com suggests that all in all JD and Alibaba are well-matched in the game of internet banking; each has its own merits. In terms of third party payment, online credit reference and banking services, Alibaba is way ahead of others here in China; in some respects, Ali leads the field. Yet, if you are talking about innovative internet banking, JD, comparatively speaking, is far more responsive. JD has also done a good job in crowdfunding and consumer finance. By stealing the winds of the heated stock market, JD again made a quick move to launch the new financial stock product Caimi. Probably because of the large scale of Alibaba’s operations, Ali is more or less lagging behind JD in terms of sensitivity.

[The article is published and edited with authorization from the author @Clover Shop, please note source and hyperlink when reproduce.]

Translated by Vanessa Hao (Senior Translator at ECHO), working for TMTpost.