A month ago, the ant listing plan with a valuation of over 2 trillion yuan was stopped, and many executives including Ma Yun were interviewed. Not only Ma Yun and Ant, with the continuous tightening of supervision in the field of Internet finance, almost all Internet giants can't stay out of it.
Recently, a number of Internet platforms removed Internet deposit products, including Alipay, Tencent Wealth Management, Xiaoman Finance, Ctrip Finance, Jingdong Finance, Didi Finance, lufax and other major platforms. This rare anomaly is unprecedented for giants who have been growing wildly in recent years. The collective removal of Internet deposit products is not only embarrassing, but even the giants with deep pockets can only accept the reality. So, for what reason, all the popular Internet deposit products were taken off the shelves at the same time?
In business, the capital market always puts interests first. Internet companies play cross-border finance and deposits, which is nothing more than profit. At first, Tencent, an Internet giant, perceived business opportunities and took the lead in setting up Weizhong Bank, the first Internet bank in China. It has almost all the businesses of traditional offline banks, including investment, wealth management and loans. Tencent gave full play to its Internet ecology and huge user base, and launched a very humanized "smart deposit+"business. With the high deposit and withdrawal and annualized interest rate as the highlights, it was very popular after its launch.
Tencent became the first giant to eat crabs through Weizhong Bank. Seeing Tencent eating meat, other internet giants don't want to miss the opportunity to share a piece of cake. They rushed to launch various Internet deposit products in the same way, and the Internet deposit boom was out of control. Since then, more and more similar products have flooded in, and Internet deposits have entered a barbaric growth stage.
However, the highlight of the rapid rise of Internet deposits did not last long. Recently, with the gradual tightening of supervision in the field of Internet finance, the Internet depository products of major platforms have been collectively removed from the shelves, which also means that the giants who have made a lot of profits through Internet depository for a long time can only accept the reality.
On the surface, the Internet deposit model seems to be a win-win situation. Small and medium-sized banks get deposits, users get higher deposit interest, and Internet platforms also get considerable traffic and commissions. However, behind the seemingly impeccable prosperity of Internet deposits, there are hidden dangers and chaos that cannot be ignored. In order to ensure that deposits are not lost and enhance competitiveness, banks have to raise interest rates continuously, which leads to a vicious competition cycle, and funds cannot be used efficiently, making life more and more difficult for small and medium-sized banks. However, the vested interests of Internet giants will not be lost. If any one of them develops wantonly, it will not be conducive to the operation of banks and users, as well as the capital chain.
For Internet giants, the Internet deposit business can earn rich profits without too much investment or any innovative technology. However, with the collective removal of a large number of Internet deposit products, it also means that the era of "lying down and winning" has ended, and the giants can only accept the reality.