Alibaba and Tencent, China’s two largest internet conglomerates, are pushing further into the country’s financial services industry by each announcing the launch of a new credit card.
The duelling credit cards will extend competition between the two, which runs the gamut from ecommerce and social media to rival taxi hailing and dating apps. Both Alibaba and Tencent are expected to be among the companies eventually granted banking licences under a pilot project to set up five banks owned by private companies, announced this week by China’s banking regulator. For the time being, each company is partnering with Citic Bank, China’s 11th largest by assets, to launch a credit card.
Alibaba’s “virtual” card will be launched next week in the Alipay Wallet app. Citic will operate the card, but for the first time, the creditworthiness of applicants will be based solely on consumers’ online shopping histories, Alibaba said.