The internet does not change the nature of finance

In July 2013, when the Shanghai FTA was launched, the local government interpreted it only as an upgraded version of a bonded area, an international shipping center, and in the two months since then, the location of the FTA was rapidly upgraded to a national strategy, which became the experimental field of financial environment, investment environment and government function reform. What is the relationship between the FTA and Holland? From a historical perspective, the vision of Shanghai's FTA is to be a contemporary Netherlands. International shipping centers are bound to bring international trade and demand for finance, especially settlement. The development of financial centres has in turn promoted the status of international shipping centres. The Netherlands can also help us understand China's financial history. Shanxi merchants in the Ming Dynasty through the transport of frontier troops to receive salt, that is, salt and salt concession concessions, and on this basis gradually developed a variety of domestic and international trade. Like the Netherlands, the development of trade, particularly in times of turmoil, has generated demand for settlement and payment. 1823, the Pingyao people Lvtai set up the Daily Sheng Chang, created a foreign exchange, replacing the implementation of the thousands of-year current bank settlement, to the world as a basis for the realization of the world. By the beginning of 20th century, Shanxi Bank in more than 100 cities in China opened hundreds of semicolons, in addition to exchange, but also to provide credit, to become the king of China's finance. The decline of Shanxi Bank is related to the war, but another very important reason is that the Qing government set up the HU-Qing bank. This government-run bank has monopolized the official business which was previously stored and remitted by the money banks. The prosperity of Shanxi Bank is the beginning of the clearing and payment business, but also because of the emergence of a more powerful and modernized rival, and the decline of the current turmoil. History and Internet Finance's review of history can help us understand internet finance because the logic of business and finance has not changed. Alibaba (rolling information) history of a classic battle, was established in 2003 Taobao and after the competition in the victory. At that time the U.S. Consumer-to-consumer market giant ebay has been in command of the domestic e-commerce field of ebay. How did this seemingly impossible task be done by the first Taobao? The reason, Taobao used a free strategy, Alibaba launched the Alipay. As a result of distrust, then the network sellers often use paragraph to the delivery, so that buyers stop before, become a network of slow development of the main reason. In other words, reliable settlement and payment is a key factor in the development of network transactions, and Alipay has creatively combined guarantees and payments. This combination of financial innovation and free strategy has completely defeated ebay. With little suspense, Alibaba will overtake Wal-Mart in a few years to become the world's biggest retail 76.43,0.42,0.55%. The source of this miracle is the strong combination of trade and payment. The logic behind it, and the Netherlands became the world's largest trading and financial center in 17th century, is not the second, and Alipay's role as if the Bank of Amsterdam. After the payment function is satisfied, in order to support the development of trade, it is a natural choice to provide credit service for both buyers and sellers. Understand this logic, it is not difficult to understand why Alibaba launched Ali in 2010Small loans, this is to the merchant's credit card. Alibaba has also tried to launch a virtual credit card for consumers this year (which was then called into the bank's emergency call). 2013 and Tianhong fund launched the balance of the main purpose of the treasure is to strengthen Alipay as a payment intermediary status. Financial instruments are changing on the surface, but the logic of business and finance is very similar to that of the Netherlands. If the Netherlands, which started with shipbuilding, could develop into the world's largest payment and financial center, and the merchants of salt could develop into the king of China's finance, the logic and prospect of internet companies doing finance are there. This logic depends on two conditions: the real demand for financial existence of business activity; And Alipay, Ali small loans, balance treasure success just meet these two conditions, this is the ancient business logic explanation. As Britain overtook Holland, the potential risk for Alibaba is the rise of another trading and financial platform. Micro-letters have succeeded in creating a mobile-era Sky City in which people interact, exchange information and engage in business activities. On the surface, the city does not cause a direct impact on Alibaba, because Taobao is the Sky Mall, and micro-letter is not a mall. But one day, Alibaba's trade and financial platform will be hit more and more by the introduction of more and more shops and more trade scenes using micro-letter payments. In other words, Alibaba's strength is to meet the strong demand for trade and finance; micro-credit is a social community, short boards are trade and payment scenarios, but the community may have a lot of trade expansion space. For example, the balance treasure since the Spring Festival, the average daily inflow of about 20 billion yuan, the number of its range is micro-letter platform launched the financial management through more than 10 times times. The reason, or because Taobao is a huge demand for trade payments. From this point of view, it is not difficult to understand why Tencent (539.5,4.50,0.84%, real-time quotes) to take a stake in the public comment network and Jingdong (rolling information) mall. These platforms bring about trade and financial needs for Tencent. The impact on the commercial banks of the Netherlands and Shanxi merchants brought a profound revelation that payment is the most basic and important function of commercial banks. The financial institutions that have this function have already planted the seeds of the bank, and when this function is combined with the deposit interest, the function of the bank is basically satisfied for the user. In other words, this combination will have a direct impact on the banks. This is how the US Monetary Fund is created. The first U.S. Monetary Fund was created in 1971 to pay interest on short-term deposits. By the late 1970, the US Monetary Fund had developed the payment function, which was equivalent to the money fund being used as cash. With the dual function of interest and payment, and the market interest rate higher than the bank-limited deposit rate, the deposit began to move rapidly. By 2001, the US Monetary Fund had gone far beyond the amount of bank demand deposits. The real history of the previous period has been in the absence of the Internet for most of the time. Today, as long as the regulatory authorities are not fully contained, the mutualThe impact of networking on the channel, coupled with the convenience of mobile payments, will make this process greatly accelerated. 2013 is the year of Internet finance, a large number of Internet financial innovation produced. But the real cause of pain and anxiety for traditional financial institutions, including commercial banks and payment agencies, is the combination of payments and interest. This combination, coupled with the fact that internet companies have built up a trade platform for financial needs, will have a direct impact on traditional finance. Trade (business) generates demand for finance, which in turn creates financial innovation when the existing financial system is not satisfied. The vitality of financial innovation, as well as the impact on the existing system, often depends on the vitality of the trading platform; In the language of the Internet, it is called flow that determines everything. This ancient logic, in the past hundreds of years, has been interpreted from the state to the rise and fall of enterprises. Internet companies in the beginning of the financial time, often simply to follow this logic for business services, and not deliberately to compete with financial institutions. As long as it conforms to business logic, internet companies do not need special DNA for finance. This kind of finance can be a supplement to the existing financial system, also can under certain condition is to the existing finance substitution. Internet finance does need proper regulation, but the impact of the balance treasure on the traditional commercial banks, the impact of the Commission PO on the brokerage, is not a simple regulatory arbitrage, but in line with commercial logic, real financial innovation. An interesting observation is that, whether internet companies, financial institutions or regulators, their attention seems to be attracted by the innovation of the Internet, but not enough attention to the nature of business and finance. In this sense, it should be meaningful to review the history, reflect the essence, develop the historical view of Internet finance, and then think about the boundary of Internet finance and its relationship with business. (The author is associate dean of Changjiang Business School, professor of finance) (Edit Zhao)