So, China is going to be the future of fintech? Well, how surprising is that since a whole lot of those really bright young Chinese innovators got educated here and worked at tech firms here in the US. Those visa's worked well........for China. But one thing they don't have to have in China? Cash. Its a cashless society. Maybe they learned here that dollars (cash) are just so overrated. Very good read and so insightful.
(Bill Taylor/CEO)
"Even though the basic technology behind it was invented in Silicon Valley the future of Fintech lies in China. China has the highest level of digital payment use and it is the home of the world’s most successful Fintech company; Ant Financial.
“You’ve got this whole lifestyle that you can live your life without cash,” Breaking Banks contributor Matt Dooley said of the situation in China. Dooley noted that it is now possible to travel across China only using a digital wallet for payment. He also claimed to have met Chinese Millennials who had not used cash in years.
It is now possible to use digital wallets to make payments at roadside markets and in remote villages in China, Dooley claimed. That is in contrast to the USA where large retailers such as Walmart and major supermarket chains refuse to accept solutions such as Apple Pay.
There are some statistics that back up Dooley’s claims. Ant Financial’s digital wallet Alipay has 700 million registered users most of whom are in China, Statista data indicates. There are around 660 million mobile payments users in China making that country the largest user of such services in the world.
Not surprisingly Ant Financial is now the world’s most valuable unicorn just ahead of Uber. It was valued at $75 billion by CLSA last year, that’s more that the mighty Goldman Sachs at $70 billion. Not bad for a company that started as a humble subsidiary of Alibaba..."
Read Full Post by Shane Meredith at LinkedinPulse