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Sina (SINA.NASDAQ) likely to release Internet finance productsBEIJING, Oct 31, 2013 (Xinhua via COMTEX) -- China's Internet giant Sina Corporation (SINA.NASDAQ) will likely enter into the burgeoning Internet finance market, the news portal 163.com reported. It is believed the company's Weibo payment subsidiary will release an online wealth management platform at the end of this year. The platform will be operated by Sina Weibo in Shanghai and have cooperation with fund companies, insurance companies and Peer-to-peer (P2P) lending companies to sell Internet finance products. An informed source from Sina Weibo told the National Business Daily that the company has obtained a payment license and was preparing for related products, but yet had any schedule for product releasing. Sina Weibo is a subsidiary of Sina Corporation and runs China's largest Twitter-like product with about 536 million users. Sina got a license for Internet payment and mobile phone payment in this June and will integrate e-wallet functions into the new edition of Sina Weibo client. Chen Zhigang, an Internet expert, said a strong payment system will help Sina Weibo turn its huge user population into cash. On the other hand, Li Yi, secretary-general of China Mobile Internet Industry Alliance, said Sina will use the sales platform to help financial institutions get customers at low costs and provide personalized financial services for the users. But Hong Bo, another Internet expert, said Sina has been defined as a public media for many years and may lack Internet technology and service capabilities to build such a sales platform and enter into the Internet finance market, which has become a hotly contested spot for Internet companies. Previously, China's Internet e-commerce giant Alibaba launched a series of Internet finance services, covering payment, micro loans, funds and insurance. And China's searching engine giant Baidu.com Inc. (BIDU.NASDAQ) recently put its online wealth management platform into formal operation, and joined hands with Huaxia Fund in releasing its first Internet finance product "Baifa". (Edited by Li Xiaoyu, [email protected]) |