Alipay eyes demand to expand wealth

Alipay, the payment service under e-commerce giant Alibaba Group, yesterday launched Zhaocaibao to sell tailor-made fixed-term wealth-management products to individual investors online.

Alibaba Small and Micro Financial Services Co said Zhaocaibao is able to automatically match individual investors' investment requirements with small and medium-sized corporate and individual loans or other wealth-management products offered by banks, insurance companies and fund companies.

The company expects booming investment demand to boost total transactions on Zhaocaibao to 1 trillion yuan (US$162 billion) in the next two to three years after more than 11 billion yuan were transacted during a four-month trial operation.

"There's a huge demand for not only current deposits and money market funds but also fixed-term wealth-management products," said researcher Li Ye at Internet consultancy Analysys International.

"Zhaocaibao can fully leverage its user data to offer diversified investment options and cut financing cost."

Customers need to invest only 100 yuan in Zhaocaibao, far below the 50,000 yuan of most wealth-management products sold at banks and insurers.

Zhong An Insurance Co will offer the products and China National Investment & Guaranty Co will guarantee the safety of investors' capital on Zhaocaibao, Alipay said.