Internet reshapes Chinese financial landscape

BEIJING - From buying dinners through various apps to managing personal finances on smartphones, Internet finance has permeated daily life in China.

Now, a report in the latest edition of Beijing-published Caijing Magazine has labeled Internet finance an "overthrowing of tradition," backed by surging transactions online.

The value of transactions via online banking services reached 352.1 trillion yuan ($57.1 trillion) in the first quarter of this year in China, up 7.8 percent from the previous quarter, the report said, citing data from Analysys, a provider of information services for China's Internet market. The nation's top four state-owned commercial banks accounted for more than 70 percent of the market share.

Cell phone banking services saw even faster growth in the first quarter, with their value topping 5.5 trillion yuan, up 23.1 percent quarter on quarter, the data showed. China Construction Bank, the country's second-largest lender, led in mobile banking transactions with a 33.6 percent market share, according to Analysys.

But the most eye-catching growth has come from mobile payment transactions via third-party payment platforms. Mobile payment services, offered by leaders such as Alibaba's Alipay and Tencent's Tenpay, hit 1.63 trillion yuan in the first quarter, up 110.5 percent from the previous quarter, the data showed.

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