馃攳
What Is Ant, the Chinese Fintech Giant With Big IPO Plans? | WSJ - YouTube
Channel: unknown
[2]
- [Announcer] This app,
[4]
handled more than $15 trillion
of transactions last year.
[8]
That's more than Mastercard
[9]
and an amount of money that's similar
[11]
to the European Union's GDP.
[14]
It also has more than 900
million users in China.
[19]
People use Alipay pay on buses and taxis,
[23]
to pay their utility bills,
shop in stores and online,
[27]
and even to buy insurance
and make investments.
[31]
And yet many Americans may
have never heard of it.
[34]
- And it's huge in China,
[35]
the Alipay app is essentially
[38]
a financial supermarket
that allows you to do
[40]
everything on your mobile phone.
[43]
- [Announcer] Alipay's
parent company, Ant Group,
[45]
is getting global attention in 2020.
[47]
It's combined IPOs in
Hong Kong and Shanghai
[50]
could be one of the largest listings ever
[52]
as Ant is aiming for a market valuation
[55]
in excess of $200 billion.
[57]
That means it may sell more
than $20 billion in shares
[60]
when it goes public.
[62]
So what is Ant and how
did it become so big?
[68]
It all started with Jack Ma,
[69]
the flamboyant Chinese businessman,
[71]
who's known for his
inspirational speeches.
[74]
- It's not about the money,
it's about the dreams.
[77]
- [Announcer] Extravagant
performances at company parties.
[79]
(singing in foreign language)
[85]
And of course, co-founding Alibaba
[87]
more than two decades ago,
[88]
which has since become
a half trillion dollar
[91]
online shopping giant.
[92]
- Alibaba is like a mix of Amazon, eBay,
[96]
and PayPal, also with a dash of Google,
[99]
but it handles more business,
[101]
its shopping sites than any
other company in the world.
[105]
- [Announcer] When Alibaba
was just starting out,
[107]
it created Alipay as an
escrow service to hold money
[110]
from buyers and release
the funds to sellers
[112]
after the goods had
been sent and received.
[115]
This build trust between
merchants and buyers
[117]
and helped to pave the way
[118]
for the eCommerce industry boom in China.
[122]
Not that many people in
China have credit cards
[124]
compared to the US.
[126]
With Alipay, most people
draw funds directly
[128]
from their bank accounts
[129]
and make cashless electronic payments
[132]
without needing to use credit cards.
[134]
- [Stella] In China, you barely
see anyone use cash anymore,
[137]
whether it's to buy a soda
or a pack of cigarettes,
[142]
people buy things with QR
codes and facial recognition.
[147]
- [Announcer] In less than five years,
[148]
Alipay has expanded to
become a ubiquitous app
[151]
that touches other parts of life.
[153]
Today Ant Group composes not just Alipay,
[155]
but a broader range of financial services,
[157]
including micro lending, insurance,
[160]
and one of the largest money
market funds in the world
[162]
called Yu'e Bao.
[163]
- [Stella] So it's a really flexible tool
[165]
that gives the average Chinese consumers
[167]
and small business owners
[169]
who have long been ignored
by the major banks,
[172]
a taste of what it's
like to be able to invest
[174]
and save money and to get
financing to fund operations.
[180]
And all of these are done just through
[182]
their smartphones almost instantly.
[185]
- [Announcer] But the rapid growth of Ant
[186]
has drawn scrutiny from
banks and regulators
[188]
as previously reported by the journal.
[191]
Some Chinese banks were earlier concerned
[193]
that Ant could take away their deposits
[195]
and reduce how much cash people use.
[197]
Ant is trying to shed its image
[199]
as a disruptor of China's banking sector.
[202]
This year, the company dropped
the word financial services
[205]
from its name in order to rebrand itself
[207]
as more of a tech company.
[209]
It also partners with many banks
[211]
that fund the loans it makes
[212]
and has made its money
market fund less risky.
[215]
- [Stella] Regulators,
especially the central bank,
[218]
they are very concerned about
potential liquidity risk
[222]
in one single fund on a
Google bound platform.
[226]
The problem is if our investors
in this firm decide to draw
[231]
the money at the same time,
[233]
it could cause a huge liquidity risk
[236]
and even damage the stability
of China's financial system.
[240]
- [Announcer] Ant responded
quickly to regulators concerns
[243]
by imposing caps on how
much people could invest
[246]
and opening the platform to rival funds.
[248]
- While Ant may have been a bit reluctant
[251]
to do that to some degree,
[253]
it's cooperation with the
government really is crucial,
[257]
because in China, very
few business can succeed
[260]
without blessings from the regulators.
[264]
- [Announcer] Outside China
Ant attempts to expand
[266]
have sometimes gotten
entangled in politics.
[269]
In 2017, Ant tried to buy
[271]
US money transfer company MoneyGram,
[273]
but the deal was scuttled by US officials
[275]
because of national security concerns.
[278]
- That was a really big
blow to Ant's ambition
[280]
to expand to the US,
[282]
which is a very large and
potentially lucrative market.
[286]
- [Announcer] And this time
Ant's dual IPO with Alibaba
[289]
will bypass New York.
[290]
A person familiar with the company said
[292]
Ant never intended to go public in the US.
[295]
It has its eyes on
India and Southeast Asia
[298]
where consumers and businesses
[299]
are underbanked similar to those in China.
[302]
But Ant's plans aren't to
launch Alipay in those markets.
[306]
- [Stella] Ant never
intends to serve consumers
[309]
outside of China via Alipay directly.
[312]
Their approach is to provide some tag
[314]
or operational expertise in
some mobile payments startups
[318]
in those markets, but they don't really
[320]
run this business in-house.
[322]
- [Announcer] And since
Ant has already captured
[324]
the biggest market in the world,
[325]
it's been laying the groundwork
[327]
to follow the millions of Chinese tourists
[329]
who go abroad every year.
[331]
The company has increased
partnerships with retailers
[333]
and restaurants overseas.
[335]
While the pandemic has
stifled much of global travel
[338]
this year, the company
is not seeing a slowdown
[341]
of online shopping and
cashless payments in China.
[345]
So Ant will make global headlines
[346]
when it hits in Hong Kong and Shanghai,
[349]
and may remain a household
name only in China.
[351]
(dramatic music)
Most Recent Videos:
You can go back to the homepage right here: Homepage