What is the meaning of Internet finance, including what modes?

Internet finance is a new financial model that uses a series of modern information technologies such as Internet technology and mobile communication technology to realize financing. In this mode, the degree of market information asymmetry is very low, and the supply and demand sides of funds can directly connect through the network, which greatly reduces the transaction cost.

For the emergence of such a new concept, most people are so excited and ecstatic that anything with some appearance of internet and finance is called internet finance. There are many discussions about internet finance, but few people stand up and classify it systematically. Although Xie Ping, deputy general manager of China Investment Corporation, made a detailed analysis of the definition, payment methods, information processing and resource allocation of Internet finance in the Research on Internet Finance Mode written in August 20 12, only the mobile banking and p2p financing modes were mainly analyzed. Recently, some people in the industry have put crowdfunding, bitcoin, and Yu' ebao. As a separate mode of internet finance, it has different classification descriptions. However, with the continuous innovation in the field of Internet finance and the deepening of social understanding of Internet finance, it is still difficult for some social definitions and patterns to fully cover the current development of Internet finance.

In order to clarify the mode of Internet finance, the Internet Finance Laboratory of Soft Exchange has conducted in-depth analysis of Internet finance-related information and made a serious study of innovative products and phenomena of Internet finance through continuous investigation and interviews with enterprises in the field of Internet finance since 20 12. Finally, the system sorts out six Internet finance modes, including third-party payment, p2p online lending, big data finance, crowdfunding, information-based financial institutions and Internet finance portals, which were first put forward by Luo Mingxiong at the "Tsinghua Financial Week Internet Finance Forum" held on April 26th, 2065438.

Based on the recent hot phenomenon of Internet finance, in order to better communicate with the industry and discuss the research results of the Internet Finance Laboratory of the Soft Exchange, the phenomena with certain business models based on Internet finance are divided into six modes, which are briefly analyzed one by one, in order to provide dinner for everyone.

1, third-party payment

Third party payment

In a narrow sense, Payment refers to an electronic payment method that a non-bank institution with certain strength and credit guarantee establishes a connection between users and bank payment and settlement systems by signing contracts with major banks with the help of communication, computer and information security technologies.

According to the definition of non-financial institutions' payment services given by the central bank in 20 10 Measures for the Administration of Payment Services of Non-financial Institutions, broadly speaking, third-party payment refers to online payment, prepaid card, bank card receipt and other payment services provided by non-financial institutions as payment intermediaries of both parties. The third payment is not limited to the initial Internet payment, but has become a comprehensive payment tool with comprehensive online and offline coverage and richer application scenarios.

From the perspective of development path and user accumulation path, the current operating modes of third-party payment companies in the market can be divided into two categories:

One is the independent third-party payment mode, that is, the third-party payment platform is completely independent of the e-commerce website, does not undertake the guarantee function, and only provides users with payment products and payment system solutions, with Kuaiqian, yeepay, Remittance World and Lacarra as typical representatives. Take yeepay as an example. At first, it was based on the gateway model and made vertical payment for the industry. Then, taking the information transformation of traditional industries as an opportunity, with its deep understanding of specific industries, the overall electronic payment solution is tailored.

The other is the third-party payment mode, headed by Alipay and Tenpay, which relies on its own b2c and c2c e-commerce websites to provide guarantee functions. The payment is temporarily hosted by the platform, and the platform informs the seller that the payment is received and delivered; In this payment mode, after purchasing goods on the e-commerce website, the buyer uses the account provided by the third-party platform to pay for the goods. After the buyer confirms the inspection, he can inform the platform to pay the seller. At this time, the third-party payment platform will transfer money to the seller's account.

Third-party payment companies mainly include transaction fees, credit interest of industry users' funds, service fee income, interest on deposited funds and other income sources.

Comparatively speaking, independent third-party payment is based on B (enterprise), while the third-party payment platform of guarantee mode is based on C (individual consumer). The former indirectly covers the customer's user base by serving enterprise customers, while the latter penetrates into the industry by virtue of the advantages of user resources.

The rise of third-party payment inevitably brings challenges to banks in the fields of settlement interest rate and corresponding electronic money/virtual money. The relationship between the third-party payment platform and commercial banks has gradually changed from the initial complete cooperation to the coexistence of competition and cooperation. With the third-party payment platform moving towards the front end of the payment process, and gradually involved in personal financial services such as funds and insurance, the intermediary business of banks is being eroded by it. In addition, third-party payment companies can use the complete information of customers' purchase, payment and settlement accumulated in their systems to provide their customers with high-quality and convenient financial services such as credit at a very low cost. At the same time, payment companies have also begun to penetrate into the fields of credit cards and consumer credit. The scope of business overlap between third-party payment institutions and commercial banks continues to expand, and gradually forms a certain competitive relationship with commercial banks. In the future, when third-party payment institutions can further liberalize financial supervision and have the unique "account" rights of banks at present, it will not only bring the pilot competition of "Yu 'ebao" to banks, but also all-round industry competition.

On July 20 13, the central bank issued a new batch of payment licenses, and 250 enterprises held payment licenses. Under the supervision of licenses, the future third-party payment field will be more competition among giants. On the one hand, it will be a giant formed by marketization such as Alipay, Kuaiqian and yeepay; On the other hand, it will be a payment platform for Sina, telecom operators and possibly Sinopec and PetroChina relying on their huge resources. With more and more participants in the payment industry, the differences between banking channels, gateway products and market services are getting smaller and smaller, and the products of payment companies will tend to be homogeneous, which means that third-party payment companies need to constantly find new performance growth points. Mobile payment, in-depth customized service in sub-industries, cross-border payment and convenient life service will become new competitive areas, and having their own unique competitiveness and characteristic channel resources will become the chips for many third-party payment enterprises to survive and compete.

2.p2p network loan platform

P2p (Peer-to-Peer)

Lending), that is, peer-to-peer credit. Peer-to-peer online lending refers to the matching of borrowers and lenders through third-party Internet platforms. People who need to borrow can find people who have the ability to lend and are willing to lend under certain conditions through the website platform, which helps lenders spread risks by sharing a loan amount with other lenders, and also helps borrowers choose attractive interest rate conditions from fully compared information.

The profit of p2p platform is mainly to charge borrowers a one-time fee and investors an assessment management fee. The loan interest rate is determined by the lender's bidding or the platform provides the reference interest rate according to the borrower's reputation and the bank's interest rate level.

Due to the lack of entry barriers, industry standards and institutional supervision, p2p online lending has not been strictly defined, and its operating model has not been fully finalized. At present, the following modes of operation have emerged. One is pure online mode. The typical platforms of this model are pat loan, Heli loan and Renren loan (some businesses). Its characteristic is that all fund lending activities are carried out online, not combined with offline audit. Usually, these enterprises take measures to examine the qualifications of borrowers, such as video authentication, checking bank bills, identity authentication and so on. The second is the combination of online and offline, represented by pterosaur loan. After the borrower submits the loan application online, the platform will review the borrower's credit standing and repayment ability through the agent in the same city. In addition, the transfer mode of creditor's rights represented by CreditEase is still in doubt. This model is that the company acts as an intermediary to screen borrowers, lend in the name of individuals and then transfer the creditor's rights to financial investors.

From the characteristics of p2p, it reduces the degree of market information asymmetry to a certain extent, and will play a certain role in promoting interest rate marketization. Because of its low participation threshold and low channel cost, it has expanded the financing channels of society to some extent. However, from the current point of view, p2p online lending is temporarily difficult to shake the bank's dominance in the credit field and cannot have a fundamental impact on banks. P2p is mainly aimed at small and micro enterprises and ordinary individual users, most of whom are "abandoned" by banks, with relatively poor credit, relatively low loan amount and insufficient collateral. Moreover, because the personal credit information system of the central bank is temporarily closed to p2p enterprises, the p2p loan review efficiency is low, the contribution rate of individual customers is low, and the probability of loan approval is low. Moreover, many off-site credit loans have a high bad debt rate because of the high cost of credit review and collection.

According to the incomplete statistics of online loan houses, there are about 800 active p2p online loan platforms in China. According to the recent planning and construction of the platform, it is estimated that it will reach about 65,438+0,500 by the end of 2065,438+03. From the current p2p industry as a whole, the first batch of entrants lack high-quality credit customers because of their certain popularity and accumulation of investors. For some newly launched platforms, due to the lack of brand awareness and investors' trust, they are forced to choose some virtual high-interest targets to attract investors, or rely on the resources of offline small loans and guarantee companies to split some scale targets in terms of capital scale or time limit, so as to form a certain transaction volume as soon as possible and strive to form a virtuous circle.

P2p online lending platform is still in the incubation period, and the lack of user awareness and imperfect risk control system are the main obstacles to the development of p2p industry. The information of some platforms running has also brought bad influence to the industry. Most of them hold the mentality of grabbing and running, relying on high returns to defraud investors' funds in a short period of time when the platform is online, and rarely fail because of real poor management. Therefore, we should not completely deny an industry because of the bad behavior of a few black sheep, but should gradually establish a filing system and related fund supervision, and at the same time increase the crackdown on real illegal fraud.

With the popularity of Internet finance and the upsurge of entrepreneurial enthusiasm, if many p2p online lending platforms want to win in the competition, on the one hand, they should accumulate enough lending groups, on the other hand, they should establish a good reputation to ensure the safety of customers' funds. With the strengthening of the supervision of p2p platform, it is an inevitable trend that the platform funds are entrusted to banks and the platform itself does not participate in the capital flow. In addition, cooperation with third-party payment platforms and e-commerce platforms, using big data accumulated on the Internet to identify risks, and various p2p online lending platforms * * * to enjoy borrower information and establish national loan records and personal credit information will be the development direction of p2p online lending, and will further accelerate the pace of interest rate marketization.

3. Big data finance

Big data finance refers to a collection of massive unstructured data. Real-time analysis can provide internet financial institutions with all-round customer information. By analyzing and mining customer's transaction and consumption information, we can master customers' consumption habits and accurately predict customers' behaviors, so that financial institutions and financial service platforms can be targeted in marketing and risk control. The financial service platform based on big data mainly refers to the financial services carried out by e-commerce companies with massive data. The key to big data is the ability to quickly obtain useful information from a large amount of data, or the ability to quickly realize cash from big data assets. Therefore, the information processing of big data is often based on cloud computing. At present, the operation mode of big data service platform can be divided into the platform mode represented by Ali Microfinance and the supply chain finance mode represented by JD.COM and Suning.

Ali Small Loan develops financial services in the way of "closed process+big data", verifies the credit status of lenders through electronic systems, and issues unsecured credit loans and accounts receivable mortgage loans with a single amount of less than 50,000 yuan, which is a very good supplement to the bank's credit. At present, Ali Finance only counts and uses its own data, and will identify the authenticity of the data and judge the false information. Through its huge cloud computing capability and various models of dozens of excellent modeling teams, Ali Finance calculates credit lines and accounts receivable amounts for merchants and shopkeepers of Ali Group from time to time, and relies on e-commerce platform, Alipay and Alibaba Cloud to realize the closed operation of customers, funds and information. On the one hand, it effectively reduces the risk factor, and at the same time, it really achieves one-minute lending. JD.COM Mall and Suning's supply chain finance model is based on e-commerce as the core enterprise, secured by future cash flow, obtaining bank credit and providing loans to suppliers.

Through the verification and evaluation of massive data, big data can increase the controllability and management of risks, find and solve possible risk points in time, and have a precise grasp of the regularity of risk occurrence, which will promote financial institutions' deeper and more thorough demand for data analysis. Although banks have a lot of payment flow data, the departments do not cross and the data cannot be integrated. The mode of big data finance urges banks to effectively use the precipitated data. Big data will promote financial institutions to innovate brands and services, realize refined services, customize customers' personalities, develop new forecasting and analysis models with data, and analyze customers' consumption patterns to improve customer conversion rate.

The big data financial model is widely used in e-commerce platforms, providing loan financing for platform users and suppliers, and obtaining loan interest and corporate benefits brought by a smooth supply chain. With the improvement of big data finance, enterprises will pay more attention to users' personal experience and design personalized financial products. In the future, the competition among big data financial enterprises will exist in data collection scope, data authenticity identification, data analysis and personalized service.

4. Crowdfunding

Crowdfunding, that is, public fund-raising or public fund-raising, refers to the mode of raising project funds from netizens in the form of group purchase+pre-purchase. The original intention of crowdfunding is to use the characteristics of the Internet and sns to let start-ups, artists or individuals show their ideas and projects to the public, win everyone's attention and support, and then get the needed financial assistance. The operation mode of crowdfunding platform is similar-individuals or teams who need funds hand over the project planning to crowdfunding platform, and after relevant review, they can set up their own pages on the platform's website to introduce the project to the public. There are three rules for crowdfunding: first, each project must set a fundraising goal and fundraising days; Second, if the target amount is reached within the set number of days, it will be successful and the sponsors can get funds; If the project fails to raise funds, all the funds obtained will be returned to the supporters; Third, crowdfunding is not a donation, and all supporters must have corresponding returns. The crowdfunding platform will extract a certain percentage of service fees from successful fundraising projects.

Some people predict that the crowdfunding model will become another channel for corporate financing. At present, the domestic ipo gate is closed, and the road of financing for enterprises to go public is becoming more and more difficult. Another solution will be provided, that is, raising funds through crowdfunding mode. However, from the current domestic actual crowdfunding platforms, due to the limitation of the number of shareholders and the regulations of public fundraising, there are many platforms for pre-sale and marketing of innovative products represented by roll call time, and there are also many platforms for realizing the dreams of creative projects such as humanities, film and television, music and publishing, and some micro-charity fundraising platforms represented by Taomeng.com and Dreamcatcher.com. Luo Zhenyu, the water tester of the Internet knowledge-based community, as the speaker of the self-media video talk show "Luo Ji Thinking", on August 9, 20 13, 5,000 200 yuan/person's two-year membership accounts were sold out within 6 hours, which is also one of the successful cases of crowdfunding mode, but it is difficult to be copied.

Since the middle of 20 13, a number of entrepreneurial service platforms, such as venture capital circle and angel exchange, have entered people's field of vision in the mode of "crowdfunding-voting" and accepted the original intention of crowdfunding well. However, because the quality of the project is difficult to judge and the rate of return is extremely uncertain, it is only among a few angel investors, investment institutions and a few people who vote.

Compared with the lively p2p, crowdfunding is still in a relatively quiet stage. At present, the domestic regulations on public offering and the red line of illegal fund-raising make the crowdfunding joint-stock system develop slowly in China, making it difficult to become bigger and stronger in China, and its impact on the financial industry and corporate financing is very limited in the short term.

From the perspective of industry development, at present, the development of crowdfunding websites should avoid the situation that group buying websites have the same operation mode and content, and another large area has fallen. This requires the operation of crowdfunding websites to reflect their own differentiation and highlight their vertical characteristics.

5. Information financial institutions

The so-called information-based financial institutions refer to banks, securities, insurance and other financial institutions, which adopt information technology to transform or reconstruct traditional business processes and realize comprehensive electronic management. Financial informatization is one of the development trends of the financial industry, and information-based financial institutions are the product of financial innovation. From the perspective of the whole financial industry, the informatization construction of banks has always been at the leading level in the industry. It not only has the international leading financial information technology platform, but also constructs a three-dimensional service system of electronic banking composed of self-service banking, telephone banking, mobile banking and online banking, and is led by a large-scale information project-data concentration project.

At present, some banks are building their own e-commerce platforms. From the bank's point of view, the core value of e-commerce is to increase user stickiness, accumulate authentic user data, and let banks rely on their own data to tap users' needs. Financial service platforms such as "Good Financial Quotient" launched by CCB and "Expo Fair" launched by Bank of Communications are powerful manifestations of bank informatization. ICBC's e-commerce platform is also expected to be launched around New Year's Day of 20 14. As a bank without Internet genes, what is the purpose of promoting e-commerce platform?

In terms of business model, traditional bank loans are streamlined and fixed, and banks are more inclined to provide services for large institutions from the perspective of cost saving and risk control. Information technology can alleviate or even solve the problem of information asymmetry, build a platform for direct cooperation between banks and SMEs, and enhance the function of financial institutions to serve the real economy. But more importantly, by building an e-commerce platform, banks actively open up the data islands of various departments within the bank and form a trinity Internet platform of "online banking+financial supermarket+e-commerce" to cope with the wave and challenge of Internet finance.

Information-based financial institutions can be understood from another very intuitive point of view, that is, through the informationization of financial institutions, we can buy insurance without going to the bank for remittance, going to the business hall for stock trading, making phone calls or surfing the Internet. Although this is the life we are accustomed to now, these are the conveniences brought by the information transformation of financial institutions based on the development of Internet technology. In the future, in the era of Internet finance, traditional financial institutions will focus on how to make full use of information technologies such as the Internet faster and better, and rely on their own advantages such as strong financial strength, high brand trust, dedicated talents and perfect risk control system to deal with the impact brought by non-traditional financial institutions, especially in thinking and speed.

6. Internet financial portal

Internet financial portal refers to a platform that uses the Internet to sell financial products and provide third-party services for financial product sales. Its core is the "search+price comparison" model, which uses the vertical price comparison method of financial products to put the products of various financial institutions on the platform, and users choose the appropriate financial products through comparison. Internet financial portals are diversified and innovative, forming a third-party financial institution that provides high-end financial investment services and financial products, and an insurance portal that provides insurance product consultation, price comparison and purchase services. This model does not have much policy risk, because its platform is not responsible for the actual sales of financial products, nor does it bear any adverse risks, and the funds do not go through the intermediate platform at all. At present, there are 3609 1 Financial Supermarket, Haodai.com, Yinlv.com, Geshang Finance, Datong.com, and Online Loan Home in the sub-sectors of credit, wealth management, insurance and p2p.

The greatest value of Internet financial portal lies in its channel value. Internet finance diverts customers from banking, trust, insurance and other industries, which intensifies the competition in these industries. With the gradual arrival of interest rate marketization and the advent of the Internet finance era, it is not so important for the demanders of funds as long as they can get it from ICBC or CCB, p2p platform or small loan companies, or trust funds, private debt and other acceptable costs within a certain period of time. When the financier arrives at the technology and finance supermarket of Rong360, Haoyou.com or SoftExchange, users don't even need to browse the product introduction and detailed comparison parameters and prices one by one like buying a physical mobile phone in JD.COM. Instead, I put forward my own needs more and make a reverse search comparison. Therefore, when the Internet financial channels such as Rong360, Haodai.com and Softcome technology and finance Supermarket have developed to a certain stage, they have certain brands and accumulated considerable traffic, becoming "JD". COM "and" Ctrip "in Internet finance, they have become important channels for major financial institutions, small loans, trusts and funds, mastered the Internet portal in the Internet finance era, and led the vane of financial product sales.

Because internet finance is in a period of rapid development, the current classification is only superficial. Even after electronic money and virtual money are classified as third-party payment models, the six models can't accommodate emerging Internet financial innovations such as Bitcoin. On the one hand, the Internet Finance Laboratory of the Soft Exchange will launch in-depth analysis articles of six modes in the near future, and will continue to study the latest trends and development trends of Internet finance in order to better interact with colleagues in the industry.

On the whole, the emergence of internet finance not only fills the service gap of traditional financial institutions represented by banks, but also improves the efficiency of the use of social funds. More importantly, popularizing and popularizing finance through the Internet not only greatly reduces the financing cost, but also is more close to the people. Its influence on the financial industry is not only to graft information technology into financial services, but also to promote the change of financial business pattern and service concept, and more importantly, to improve the financial function of the whole society. The development of internet finance will bring some impacts to the banking industry, but it will also bring new opportunities to fund companies, securities companies, insurance companies and trust companies. With the in-depth development of internet finance in the direction of the above six modes, it will further promote financial disintermediation, challenge the ways and means of traditional financial services, and change the status and power comparison of all parties in the financial industry.

The world of Internet finance is changing rapidly. What is happening is a financial revolution. Everything is still unknown, and its specific form will continue to be enriched and improved. However, there is no doubt that Internet finance is changing the traditional financial model with a devastating trend.