As the FinTech wave arrives, are China's Internet finance platforms ready?

The pace of innovation will never stop, and this is especially true in the financial industry. While everyone is still discussing the status of P2P online lending regulation and where the next innovation outlet for Internet finance will be, the term "FinTech" has begun to appear more and more frequently in the public's view.

In the future, domestic Internet finance may also be called FinTech

What is FinTech? Is it a new product model category created by Internet finance, just like P2P online lending? This time it is not. To be precise, if we must draw a logical relationship between Internet finance and FinTech, we can only say that it is a synonym for the upgraded version of Internet finance after it has developed to a certain stage.

In this regard, industry experts also believe that the concept of "Internet finance", which is still very popular in China, is being replaced by the term "Fintech", which means that my country's Internet finance is returning to its position as technology.

What does FinTech mean? In Chinese, its true meaning is technology finance. Here, we might as well split the word Fintech and find that it is actually a compound word of Finance and Technology. It can be said that if the genes of the current domestic Internet finance belong to "Internet technology + finance", then the genes of Fintech are more superior, and it belongs to "science and technology + finance". Internet technology is obviously included in science and technology.

How much do you know about FinTech?

What is most interesting now is that since everyone regards FinTech as a synonym for the upgraded version of Internet finance, and the technical support it relies on has also transitioned from the Internet to science and technology, what high-tech technical content will the "Tech" in the FinTech stage involve? Generally speaking, it can be divided into the following three categories:

First, user experience. A good user experience is not only good-looking, but also easy to use. To a large extent, FinTech is intended to replace manual services.

Second, big data. Nowadays, big data mostly refers to big data architecture, that is, building a system to store and process big data. At present, the analysis of big data is still in its early stages. For example, it still needs to rely on manual modeling and analysis, and it is not very good at processing multi-dimensional and multi-form data. In general, there is still room for further breakthroughs in this area.

Third, artificial intelligence. This is a very important technological direction for the development of FinTech, which is to completely use computers to replace some things that rely on human brains to analyze, such as replacing account managers or credit specialists. For example, with a large enough amount of information, coupled with the introduction of machine learning and artificial intelligence technology, FinTech can be truly intelligent and can replace the analysis process of the human brain, which will be very effective in solving problems such as credit fraud. At present, breakthroughs in this area are not enough, and there is still a lot of work to be done in the future.

As mentioned above, the concept of Internet finance, which is very popular in China, is being replaced by the term Fintech. So is the concept of FinTech very new? In fact, the term FinTech is not a new term that has been created recently in the financial field. In the international community, especially in the United States, which has always been known as the number one economic power, the term FinTech has long been widely used. And its role in the financial life of the American people is basically equal to that of China's Internet finance. In the United States, Internet finance has never been called Internet finance, but FinTech. And the public basically understands it this way. As long as people mention Internet finance, they will naturally think of it as FinTech. It can be said that the development of China's financial industry, from the Internet finance stage to the FinTech stage, is just like the term P2P online lending that was originally imported. FinTech is just an imported term used to replace the term that my country's Internet finance has developed to an advanced stage.

There may be something difficult to understand here. Just from the scope of applied technology, we know FinTech and Internet finance. Although the former can replace the latter, and the latter can never surpass the former, it is obvious that the two are not on the same level in essence. But in the eyes of Americans, why is it that when mentioning China's Internet finance, it is naturally thought of or said, or even translated as FinTech?

In fact, this is not difficult to understand. Because in the United States, from a technical perspective, the United States is faster than China in terms of technological innovation in Internet finance, and the technical means it has penetrated and applied are earlier and more extensive than those in China. Internet finance in the United States has been developing directly according to the prototype model of FinTech. It is not like China's Internet finance, which initially only introduced Internet technology components, but is driven by data and technology as the core, combining the external perspective of the Internet and entrepreneurship.

As everyone is familiar with the American Lending Club, in the impression of Chinese investors, everyone knows that Lending Club is the largest P2P online lending platform in the United States, and the American people also call Lending Club a financial technology company, that is, a FinTech company. However, what everyone does not know is that in fact, the industry layout of FinTech mainly includes the following six areas: retail banking, payment and transfer, loan and financial management, financial wealth management, insurance, and blockchain. For the P2P online lending business engaged in by the American Lending Club, it is just one of the many application scenarios of FinTech.

China's Internet finance platforms need to integrate into the FinTech localization process as soon as possible

What is of great concern to everyone now is that when China's Internet finance industry starts to evolve and transform into FinTech, are China's Internet finance platform companies ready? Especially for most platform companies whose operating business is as simple as pure P2P online lending, can they keep up with the pace?

In this regard, an industry insider conducted a survey, and the results showed that in China, the pace of technological evolution of Internet finance is not as slow as everyone imagines. Although we have always called Internet finance Internet finance instead of FinTech, it does not mean that the scope of technology introduction and application of Internet finance in China is still very single. Although the concept has not caught up, from a technical point of view, although not as fast as the United States, it has also caught up.

For example, Ant Financial, a typical Chinese Internet financial platform, can be regarded as a typical FinTech company in terms of business categories, and its services include payment, financial management, etc.

Another example is Anxindai, a well-known and established P2P platform in China. In fact, it had already positioned itself in the investor appreciation meeting held by Anxindai in the Great Hall of the People in 2015. At the meeting, Weng Lifeng, executive director of Anxindai, described in his speech to users at the appreciation banquet that Anxindai will "achieve industrial upgrading, participate in the establishment of various financial institutions, and develop from a single online loan to a multi-license financial holding platform." This is undoubtedly an important declaration that Anxindai will participate in various business models and technical applications of FinTech in its development positioning. Moreover, just from the professional lending platform of Anxindai, such as Anxin Community representing social functions, Anxin Charity reflecting public welfare characteristics, and Anxin Information reflecting investor education functions, multiple points that are in line with FinTech business have been initially presented.

It can be seen that in the development of Internet finance, when the clarion call of technology transforming finance began to sound in China, although FinTech has not been popularized, there are many platform companies in China that are ready and waiting for the opportunity to move forward. It should be reminded that in the face of the arrival of this FinTech wave, those platform companies that are not yet ready should also be enterprising, break through innovation, and move closer to the FinTech era, otherwise, in the next stage of Internet finance, you will not be able to catch up and play.