China Digital
Sina’s New Credit Card Payment Service
Sina has rolled out its new credit card payment service called Xinyongbao. New users will receive RMB50-100 in credit without any bank account information needed. The money received will depend on different criteria, such as payment record, purchase history, etc. on Sina Weibo and its platform apps. The only “merchandise” available on Xinyongbao currently are Sina’s online games. The service, however, is geared towards mobile payments for virtual sales like eBooks and mobile videos. Sina will charge merchants 12-20% in fees.
Source:Sohu
China Digital
Banking on Weibo
The People’s Bank of China not only surprised markets by announcing Thursday that it covertly injected funds into the financial system to ease a funding squeeze. It also raised eyebrows with the way it did it – via Weibo, China’s equivalent to Twitter, rather than through traditional channels the bank used Weibo to make a quick announcement about what its done was clearly intended to appease investors in China’s interbank market
Source:Wall Street Journal
China Digital
E-commerce Financial Services
In a bid to grab as much market share as possible, Internet giants Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent and JD released their financial products. These companies are trying to make their way into the financial sector, as there is much growth potential. Baidu offers a group-buying financial product call Baifa that guarantees 8% monthly interest to consumers. The company also plans to release several short-term investment options. WeChat has been testing its financial product, WeChat United Fund, whereas Alibaba is doing business with Tianhong Asset Manangement.
Source:Want China Times
China Digital
China Encourage Cross-Border E-commerce
China as it is now is the biggest e-commerce market in the world. But China doesn’t plan to stop there, their next target: the U.S., and the rest of the world. More Chinese firms are looking to take their services abroad because of the saturated market and heavy competition in the homeland. According to an exec for JD.com the biggest factor is price and because of that there is no customer loyalty. Going outside of China, where services are more important might be a way to increase their revenue and customer loyalty. Some e-commerce giants like JD are already doing business abroad and the results are positive but still not a big competitor to US based giant, Amazon. If Chinese online retailers are serious about taking on global companies such as Amazon.com and eBay, they need to build their own logistics centers abroad for more efficient handling. So far, neither Jingdong nor AliExpress manage their own shipping or logistics, choosing to use partnerships instead.
Source:Wall Street Journal
China Digital
Amazon Web Service Ready to be Launched in China
Sina tech news released on December 18th 2013 that Amazon and China Broadband Capital had reached a strategic agreement to launch AWS in the Chinese market. It is likely that the database will be in Ningxia province and have an operating center in Beijing. Rumor’s have been spreading about Amazon entering the Chinese market since the beginning of this year, since they launched their website at the beginning of 2012, and began recruiting Chinese staff. The CEO of UCloud, a Chinese cloud computing service provider, stated that if Amazon wanted to win over the Chinese market they would need to focus on product development, technology support and sales.
Source:Chine Internet Watch