Glossary | Investor Insights
12.12 (or “double twelve”) is an unofficial online shopping holiday that takes place every year on December 12th, similarly to Singles’ Day (or “double eleven”).
The 2035 Plan is a national strategic plan launched in 2020 for China to achieve “socialist modernization” with goals including broadened urbanization, an expansion of the middle class, and doubling GDP per capita to equal those of middle income developed countries.
A-Shares are shares of Chinese-incorporated companies that trade on mainland Chinese stock exchanges with RMB as the trading currency.
The Agricultural Bank of China is a state-owned Chinese bank that is one of China’s largest banks and the third largest bank in the world based on total assets as of 2021. The bank is also included as a Global Systemically Important Bank (G-SIB) by the Financial Stability Board.
Alibaba is a technology conglomerate with a focus on e-commerce, retail, delivery, entertainment, health, and cloud computing services. Notable products include Taobao, T-Mall, Youku, Lazada, and Daraz, amongst others. Ant Group, which owns the Alipay platform, was spun off from and is currently affiliated with Alibaba Group.
Alipay is a digital payment platform founded in 2004 by Alibaba Group that was later spun off in 2011. It was originally the predecessor to Ant Financial (now known as Ant Group) and still remains a core component of Ant. Users can pay and transfer money using a QR code, while other newly added functionalities include ordering food deliveries, booking movie tickets and hotels, calling a taxi, renting a power bank, and etc., that has transformed the app into a super app for consumers.
Ant Group, formerly known as Ant Financial, is a digital finance tech company affiliated with Alibaba Group. Ant was initially founded as Alipay in 2004, an online payment platform with escrow functionalities. The company was spun off from Alibaba in 2011 and expanded to become a comprehensive platform for consumers to access digital finance services, with a particular focus on providing ease of access to credit as well as a wide range of customized investment and insurance products. Alibaba currently has a 33% equity stake in Ant.
B-Shares are shares of Chinese-incorporated companies that trade on mainland Chinese stock exchanges with US dollars or Hong Kong dollars as the trading currency.
Baidu is a Chinese tech conglomerate famous for its search engine of the same name, hence the company’s reputation as being a Chinese version of Google. Baidu’s other subsidiaries include Apollo, China’s first self-driving car, Du Xiaoman Financial, Baidu’s fintech arm which was spun-off in 2018, as well as a cloud computing business. Baidu is the largest shareholder of iQIYI, a Chinese version of Netflix.
An entity set up jointly by the National Internet Finance Association of China and eight private companies with credit scoring functions to foster the sharing of information in order to create a comprehensive and centralized database for individual and corporate credit scores.The literal translation of Baihang is “a hundred industries”, which figuratively means “all industries”.
The Bank of China, not to be confused with the People’s Bank of China (i.e. the central bank of the People’s Republic of China), is one of China’s largest banks and is the fourth largest bank in the world based on total assets as of 2021. The bank is also included as a Global Systemically Important Bank (G-SIB) by the Financial Stability Board.
Kuaishou is a short-video social networking application similar to TikTok and Douyin that is especially popular among China’s rural and/or lower income consumers. As of Q1 2021, Kuaishou had 295 million daily active users and over 520 million monthly active users.
The Belt and Road initiative, formerly known as the One Belt One Road initiative, is a global infrastructure development strategy aimed at facilitating trade between China and participating countries. The initiative was announced in 2013 and can be viewed as the development of a modern day Silk Road network.
Bilibili is a video sharing platform similar to YouTube. Bilibili originally started as an anime video sharing website, but has since expanded to include user-generated content (i.e. self-made rather than professionally-made videos) spanning a wide range of topic areas. Bilibili users are known for possessing a strong sense of community, with users developing their own slang and engaging heavily in discussions as part of the comment section of videos. The platform recorded 237 million monthly active users as of the end of Q2 2021.
A program for foreign institutional investors to invest in the Chinese fixed income markets via a trading architecture set up in Hong Kong.
ByteDance is the parent company of short-video social networking platforms TikTok and Douyin (the mainland Chinese counterpart to TikTok). As of the end of 2020, ByteDance had 1.9 billion monthly active users across all of its platforms including TikTok, Douyin, and Toutiao, a Chinese news and information platform.
CITIC Group, formerly known as China International Trust Investment Corporation (CITIC), is a predominantly state-owned commercial bank with core businesses in the areas of corporate banking, retail banking, and financial market services. CITIC Group had total assets of RMB7.5 trillion in 2020.
CSOP was founded in Hong Kong in 2008 as the first offshore asset manager set up by a regulated asset management company in China. The company focuses on providing China-focused investment products, particularly ETFs, to international investors. CSOP was the largest RQFII manager in the world with a quota of RMB46.1 billion in June 2019, until the quota system was removed in September 2019. As of July 2020, CSOP had US$8.2 billion in AUM.
Cainiao is a logistics platform developed by Alibaba Group with two main functionalities: (1) to connect senders with delivery couriers, and (2) to standardize the logistics shipping process.As part of (1), Cainiao collects shipping orders from senders and distributes/assigns them to different partner delivery companies. Cainiao benefits from a very high level of consumer coverage, as Cainiao has a mini-program installed in Alipay and Taobao and is also integrated with Taobao’s return service. In return for partnering with Cainiao, delivery companies are required to share their data with Alibaba. Cainiao also operates a large number of local postal hubs for senders, recipients, and delivery couriers to pick up and drop off packages. Since the majority of delivery couriers in China do not pick up or drop-off packages at the customer’s door, Cainiao postal hubs play a crucial role in connecting consumers and delivery companies in the last mile stretch of the logistics process.
As part of (2), Cainiao serves as an application programming interface (API) to standardize the digital format of shipping labels for merchants. This helps to streamline the logistics process for merchants who use different delivery companies, each with their own distinct format. Cainiao is linked with Taobao’s merchant platform to facilitate ease of access for the platform’s merchants.
ChiNext, formerly known as Growth Enterprise Market (GEM), is a board listed under the Shenzhen Stock Exchange launched in 2009 to target start-up companies. The board has subsequently become referred to as ChiNext so as not to be confused with another board named GEM on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. ChiNext is one of two boards in China, alongside the STAR Market, to have a registration-based system for IPOs.
The China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission (CBIRC) was formed in April 2018 as a result of the merger of the China Banking Regulatory Commission and the China Insurance Regulatory Commission. The CBIRC’s mandate is to supervise the establishment and ongoing activities banking and insurance institutions in China, as well as to take enforcement actions against any regulatory violations by such institutions.
China Construction Bank is one of China’s largest banks and is the second largest bank in the world in terms of total assets as of 2021. The bank is also included as a Global Systemically Important Bank (G-SIB) by the Financial Stability Board.
A program for foreign institutional investors to invest in Chinese Treasury bills and bonds via the support of a licensed settlement agent.
China Life is a state-owned Chinese insurance company and is China’s second largest and the world’s third largest insurer based on 2020 net premiums written.
China Pacific Insurance is a predominantly state-owned (but also mixed private ownership) insurance company and is one of China’s largest insurers.
The China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) administers and supervises the securities market in China (similarly to the Securities and Exchange Commission in the US).
China Standards 2035 is a national strategic plan launched in 2020 for China to set the world’s future standards in terms of cutting-edge technological development.
Chinabank Payments is a digital payment processing company that was acquired by JD in 2012.
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is the founding and sole governing political party of China.
Ctrip is the largest travel booking website in China. In 2017, Ctrip acquired Trip.com, an international online travel agency. The company rebranded itself as Trip.com Group in 2019 with various Chinese and international travel agencies under its umbrella, including Skyscanner, the original Trip.com travel agency, and the original Ctrip website.
DiDi is the Chinese equivalent of Uber in the west or Grab in Southeast Asia. Users can use the DiDi app to hail taxis or private hire cars.
Dongfeng Motor is a Chinese state-owned auto company and is one of the largest automakers in China. The company’s portfolio includes brands from joint ventures with other auto companies (e.g. Honda, Nissan, and formerly, Peugeot Citroën), as well as in-house developed brands.
Douyin is the mainland Chinese counterpart of TikTok. Both applications are owned by Chinese company ByteDance, and share very similar features and algorithms. As of March 2021, Douyin had over 600 million daily active users, compared with 689 million monthly active users around the same time for TikTok.
Du Xiaoman Financial was internet giant Baidu’s fintech arm until it was spun-off from the tech conglomerate in 2018, albeit with Baidu still being the largest shareholder. Du Xiaoman Financial’s core business is microlending, although other businesses include a payment platform, as well as platforms for consumers and third-party financial institutions to buy and sell wealth management and insurance products.
ECOVACS is a Chinese company that produces robotic appliances for in-home use. Products include the highly popular DEEBOT floor-cleaning robot, the WINBOT window-cleaning robot, the ATMOBOT air-purifying robot, and the business service assistance robot BENEBOT.
East Money Information is an online financial information provider that also operates a platform for investors to buy and sell funds. In 2019, East Money generated RMB658.9 billion in AUM via their platform over 71.8 million mutual fund transactions.
FAW Group, formerly known as First Automobile Works, is a Chinese state-owned auto company and is one of China’s largest automakers. The company’s portfolio includes brands from joint ventures with other automobile companies (e.g. Volkswagen, Toyota, and Mazda) as well as in-house developed brands (e.g. Hongqi and Bestune).
Hema is a premium supermarket by Alibaba Group that offers customers a high-tech shopping experience including digital price tags, scan-to-read product information from QR codes, AI-based product recommendations, and a facial recognition payment system. Hema supermarkets also serve as fulfillment centres for delivery orders, where Alibaba has a guaranteed 30 minute delivery time frame for orders placed within a certain geographical radius.
Gaotu, formerly known as GSX Techedu Inc., is one of China’s largest online education organizations that almost solely targets K-12 subjects.
H-Shares are shares of Chinese-incorporated companies that trade on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
Haidilao is a Chinese hot pot chain founded in 1994 that has particularly gained traction in the 2010s due to its selling point of superior customer service and generally more consistent and higher quality meat products. For example, each Haidilao store has a waiting area for peak times that is equipped with a variety of snacks, toys for children, and a free manicure service to keep guests entertained while waiting. The chain also has a famous noodle dance where noodles are freshly hand-pulled at each customer’s table before being put into the pot. Various small amenities are also available including hair ties, glasses wipes, as well as toothbrush kits and mouthwash for use after dining.
A platform from Ant Group that functions like a virtual credit card where consumers can pay in installments for the goods they purchase from Alibaba or from Alipay partners who have chosen to opt in the program.
The name Huabei roughly translates to “let’s spend”.
Huawei is a Chinese technology company that produces consumer electronic devices, networking equipment, solar energy related products, and also offers cloud computing services.
ICBC is a Chinese state-owned commercial bank that is the largest bank in the world based on total assets in 2021. The bank is also included as a Global Systemically Important Bank (G-SIB) by the Financial Stability Board.
JD, known fully as Jingdong, is a Chinese e-commerce platform that has built its brand value on the basis of being a provider of premium (and at first primarily electronic) goods with good customer service and extremely fast and efficient delivery. JD has a business-to-consumer (B2C) e-commerce model, and is one of China’s two largest B2C e-commerce platforms, with the other being JD’s rival T-Mall.
JD Digits, formerly known as JD Finance, was the fintech arm of Chinese internet giant JD until the unit was merged with JD Cloud & AI to become JD Technology in early 2021. The scope of JD Digits includes the extension of credit to consumers, partner businesses and SMEs, as well as digitalization support services for businesses and government entities, such as digitalized inventory and account management.
JD Technology was formed in January 2021 as a result of the restructuring of JD Digits and the merger of JD Digits with JD AI and JD Cloud. The unit was created in response to China’s tightening regulatory stance on fintech companies and reflects JD’s intention to focus more on technology development as a whole rather than specifically on financial technology services.
Ant Group’s platform for individual borrowers to take out small loans. The amount borrowers can loan out depends on their Zhima Credit score. Ant does not use their own balance sheet to originate loans, and the credit balance originated through the Ant platform are either underwritten by partner financial institutions or securitized.
The name Jiebei roughly translates to “let’s borrow”.
Kingsoft is one of China’s earliest software companies founded in 1988. Kingsoft’s best known products include Kingsoft Office (also known as WPS Office), a product similar to Microsoft Office, and Kingsoft AntiVirus, a suite of anti-virus tools. Kingsoft also has a wide range of additional products spanning PC games, online dictionaries, various mobile applications, and Kingsoft Cloud, a cloud storage platform.
Kuaiqian is a digital payment processing company that handles both online payment processing and manufactures POS machines.
Lingqiantong is a feature embedded in the WeChat platform that allows users to earn interest on money deposited in their WeChat accounts or from linked debit cards by investing this money in money market funds, similarly to Ant’s Yu’ebao product.
Lingshoutong is analogous to Taobao but is targeted towards convenience store owners rather than retail consumers. Specifically, Lingshoutong was founded as an application for local convenience store owners to make wholesale purchases of items that they would not normally be able to obtain through their regular distributors.
Shanghai Lujiazui International Financial Asset Exchange (Lufax) is a digital finance platform that allows users to browse for and invest in mutual funds. The company, an affiliate of Ping An Group, originally started as a peer-to-peer (P2P) lending platform but ultimately transitioned to become a digital investment services provider following the crackdown on P2P lending in China.
MYBank is an online, private commercial bank founded in 2015 with Ant Group as a majority shareholder. MYBank was founded to target the lack of credit problem and foster inclusive finance by providing unsecured loans to small- and medium-sized businesses, individual merchants, as well as those living in lower tier cities and rural areas.
Made in China 2025 is a national strategic plan launched in 2015 to upgrade China’s manufacturing capabilities from producing low technology, low-value goods to high-tech, high-value products.
Meituan is the dominant food delivery platform in China which also offers additional functionalities including hotel booking, on-demand delivery services, and discount coupon purchases (similar to Groupon).
Midea is one of China’s largest household electronic appliance manufacturers that also produces appliances for other brands.
A mini program is a small webpage-like program that runs inside a super-application (e.g. WeChat, QQ, Alipay, and Baidu Mobile) and can interact with the super-application for additional functionalities, such as payments (e.g. WeChat Pay) or acquiring contact information (e.g. fetching address information from Alipay).
Momo is a Chinese dating application where users can search for and instant message others nearby. The application also has a live-streaming functionality (for singing, dancing, or any other purpose) with over 30 million monthly active users.
N-shares refer to shares of non-Chinese incorporated companies established and originated in mainland China that are controlled by mainland Chinese companies or individuals. N-shares are traded on the New York Stock Exchange or NASDAQ.
NIO is one of China’s largest electric vehicle manufacturers that differentiates itself from competitors by placing greater emphasis on superior customer service.
The National Council for Social Security Fund of the People’s Republic of China (NCSSF) was established in 2000 to manage the National Social Security Fund (NSSF), i.e. China’s national pension fund, launched the same year. The NCSSF had total assets under management of RMB5.96 trillion as of the end of 2021.
The National Equities Exchange and Quotations (NEEQ), more commonly known as the New Third Board, was piloted in 2006 and formally inaugurated in January 2013 as the third national equity trading venue in the People’s Republic of China (with the first two venues being the Shanghai Stock Exchange and the Shenzhen Stock Exchange). According to the Chinese State Council, the New Third Board is specifically an over-the-counter (OTC) market for non-publicly listed companies that is intended to provide innovative small- and medium-sized enterprises with an accessible, low-cost source of financing. This is reflected by the NEEQ’s Chinese name, which translates to “national small- and medium-sized enterprise share transfer system”.As of September 3rd, 2021, there were 7,299 companies listed on the New Third Board. Cumulative turnover from the start of the year to September 3rd, 2021, was RMB101 billion (approximately US$15.7 billion).
An association set up by the People’s Bank of China, the China Securities Regulatory Commission, the China Banking Regulatory Commission and the China Insurance Regulatory Commission (the latter two have since merged to become the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission) to supervise the carrying out of the central government’s policies on internet finance, to facilitate the communication between members and policymakers, to enhance consumer protection and promote industry standards, to collect, carry out, and disseminate data and industry research to members, regulators, and the public, and to represent China’s internet finance industry at the international level.
The National Social Security Fund (NSSF) is a Chinese sovereign wealth fund that was launched in 2000 to serve as China’s national pension fund.
NetEase is a Chinese internet technology company founded in 1997 that originally started off as a web services provider similar to Yahoo, but eventually focused on developing online games, in addition to operating an on-demand music-streaming service.
One of China’s oldest and largest education organizations that originally started by offering preparation classes for the TOEFL and GRE exams, but has since expanded to include a wide range of courses for both K-12 subjects as well as career exams for working professionals. New Oriental offers both online and offline classes, although the online classes are operated by a separately listed entity. The majority of New Oriental’s revenues come from its K-12 classes.
OPPO is a Chinese consumer electronics company and one of China’s leading smartphone manufacturers popular for its value-for-money phones.
P-chips refer to shares of non-Chinese incorporated companies established and originated in mainland China that are controlled by mainland Chinese companies or individuals. P-chips are listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
The People’s Insurance Company of China (PICC Group) is a state-owned Chinese insurer that is also China’s third largest and the world’s ninth largest insurance company based on net premiums written in 2020.
The central bank of the People’s Republic of China. Not to be confused with Bank of China (中国银行), a large state-owned commercial bank.
PICC is a publicly listed Chinese insurer with the Chinese central government as the controlling shareholder. It is one of the largest insurance companies in China.
Pinduoduo is a Chinese e-commerce platform that was originally based on the model of “social buying”, where consumers could purchase goods at lower prices if they invited somebody else to buy the items with them. At first, individual consumers could not buy products themselves without a co-purchaser, but the platform has since expanded to allow for purchases by single customers. Pinduoduo primarily targets lower income consumers who place a great significance on value-for-money.
Officially known as Ping An of China and more commonly known as Ping An Insurance, Ping An of China is a personal financial services provider founded in 1988. The company is China’s largest insurer and the second largest insurer in the world based on net premiums written in 2020.
Policy banks are banks set up by the Chinese government to fulfill economic policies and conduct non-profit businesses. Funding comes from the government or bond offerings, but no retail deposits are used or accepted. Currently, there are two policy banks in China: (1) the Export-Import Bank of China, and (2) the Agricultural Development Bank of China. China Development Bank was a policy bank until 2008, after which the institution became a state-owned commercial bank until 2015, when the bank was reclassified as a Development Financing Institution to support the Belt and Road initiative.
QQ is an instant messaging application in China owned by Tencent. QQ used to be the most popular messaging app in China until WeChat (also owned by Tencent) became more dominant.
A program for qualified foreign institutional investors to invest in the Chinese stock markets using foreign currency, which has since expanded to include a range of other asset classes.
Red chips refer to shares of non-Chinese incorporated companies that are substantially owned by mainland China state entitites with the majority of its revenue or assets derived from mainland China.
Red packets traditionally refer to money given by elderly family members to young children during Chinese New Year, where the money is typically given in a red envelope (hence the Chinese name “hong bao”, where “hong” means “red” and “bao” means “packet/envelope”). However, in the digital era, internet platforms such as e-commerce companies give out digital red packets to customers. These digital red packets function similarly to online gift cards, where customers can redeem for a small discount them while shopping on the relevant platform.
In a registration-based (as opposed to regulator/approval-based) IPO system, companies are able to go public given that they fulfill the necessary disclosure requirements. This is the system in place in many countries and regions including the US, the UK, the European Union, Hong Kong and Singapore. China is trialling the use of the registration-based system with the launch of the STAR Market in mid-2019 and with ChiNext in 2020.
In a regulator/approval-based (as opposed to registration-based) IPO system, companies are required to obtain prior approval from a regulatory body and the necessary regulatory requirements (such as those on cash flow or profitability) before being able to go public. The regulator/approval-based system is traditionally used in China, with the exception of the STAR Market and ChiNext.
A program for qualified foreign institutional investors to invest in the Chinese stock markets using RMB, which has since expanded to include a range of other asset classes.
S-chips refer to shares of non-Chinese incorporated companies established and originated in mainland China that are controlled by mainland Chinese companies or individuals. S-chips are traded on the Singapore Stock Exchange.
SAIC Motor, formerly known as Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation, is a state-owned auto company that is also China’s number one automaker in terms of number of vehicles sold for over 15 years. The company’s portfolio comprises of various joint venture brands with other domestic and foreign auto companies (e.g. Volkswagen Group, General Motors, and Wuling Motors) as well as in-house developed brands (e.g. MG and Roewe).
The sannong issues refer to three key areas of work which the Chinese government highlight as being crucial elements of the country’s policies on rural development: agriculture (农业)(nongye), rural villages and areas (农村)(nongcun), and farmers (农民)(nongmin). These issues concern topics such as food security, increasing agricultural efficiency, enhancing the infrastructure in rural areas, and improving farmers’ livelihoods.
The STAR Market was founded in July 2019 as a board listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange meant to promote the domestic development of research-driven, technologically advanced companies that have the potential to be the future driving force of China’s economy. As of December 2020, there were 200 companies listed on the Market, with a notable number being chip manufacturing companies.
A program for qualified foreign institutional investors and individual investors to invest in the stocks listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange via a trading infrastructure set up in Hong Kong. Mainland Chinese investors can also purchase Hong Kong stocks on this platform.
A program connecting the Shanghai Stock Exchange and the London Stock Exchange by allowing eligible companies listed on either of the two stock exchanges to issue, list, and trade depository receipts on the counterpart’s stock market in accordance with applicable laws and regulations.
A shell company in the Chinese context typically refers to a publicly listed target company that is acquired so that the acquirer can circumvent the process of going public. Specifically, a private acquirer that wants to go public can avoid going through the uncertainties and complexities of the IPO process by simply acquiring a company that is already publicly listed in order to attain publicly listed status.
For example, Hengda (China Evergrande) Group launched its healthcare business by acquiring a publicly listed media company on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, renamed it Evergrande Health Industry Group, and commenced healthcare business operations. This allowed Hengda to have a publicly listed healthcare subsidiary without actually going through the IPO process.
A program for qualified foreign institutional investors and individual investors to invest in the stocks listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange via a trading infrastructure set up in Hong Kong. Mainland Chinese investors can also purchase Hong Kong stocks on this platform.
Shunfeng is the largest private delivery courier in China and the second largest overall delivery courier nationwide, smaller than only China Post (i.e. China’s national postal service). Shunfeng offers premium, faster delivery services at higher prices.
Sina Weibo is a Chinese social media platform similar to Twitter where users can post short text, pictures, and share video clips.
A Chinese version of America’s Cyber Monday where online retailers have promotions and sales on November 11th. This date is named “Singles’ Day” because the numeral 1 represents a bare stick, i.e. 光棍 – an internet slang for single men and women who do not add branches to the family tree. Singles’ Day is the largest shopping event in the world and was founded by Alibaba Group.
An online financial information platform where investors can post and share their ideas or individual portfolio performance, in addition to purchasing stocks or funds through the company’s brokerage app.
One of China’s largest (initially offline but now omni-channel) 3C (computer, consumer, and communication electronics) retailers.
T-Mall, also known as Taobao-Mall, was split from Taobao in 2011. T-Mall is an e-commerce platform owned by Alibaba Group, where merchants can sell goods to consumers (i.e. the business-to-consumer e-commerce model), as opposed to Taobao, also owned by Alibaba Group, where individuals sell goods to consumers (i.e. the individual-to-consumer e-commerce model). Taobao and T-Mall combined represent the world’s largest e-commerce platform.
One of China’s oldest and largest education organizations focused on K-12 education. TAL initially started with only in-person classes but has expanded to offer both in-person and online options. Almost all of TAL’s revenues come from K-12 education.
Taobao is an e-commerce platform owned by Alibaba Group, where individuals sell goods to consumers (i.e. the individual-to-consumer e-commerce model), as opposed to T-Mall, an e-commerce platform also owned by Alibaba Group, where merchants can sell goods to consumers (i.e. the business-to-consumer e-commerce model). Taobao and T-Mall combined represent the world’s largest e-commerce platform.
Tencent is a technology conglomerate that is also one of the largest tech companies in Asia. The company focuses on social media and entertainment, with notable products including WeChat and QQ messenger, in addition to music, video and comic products. Tencent is also the largest video game vendor in the world, with many internationally renowned games under its corporate umbrella.
The Cyberspace Administration of China is China’s regulatory body for all things pertaining to the internet, including the regulation of censorship and data security.
The police authority of China.
The Chinese equivalent of the CIA in the US or MI5 in the UK.
The politburo is the central decision making body for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and is headed by the General Secretary of the CCP (who is usually also the president of China). The politburo constitutes a group of 25 officials, including 7-8 of whom form the Standing Committee and are viewed to hold the highest political power in China. The politburo oversees the handling of day-to-day affairs for the CCP, as well as the management of important issues and incidents (e.g. the COVID-19 pandemic) in the country.
The State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) is China’s governmental authority for regulating market competition, anti-trust, intellectual property, and drug safety. The SAMR was established in 2018 to consolidate the functions of the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ), the China Food and Drug Administration (CFDA), and the State Administration of Industry and Commerce (SAIC).
The State Council represents China’s central government which oversees the handling of day-to-day government affairs. The State Council is one of China’s two central-level (as opposed to local-level) political decision making bodies, with the other being the Politburo of the Chinese Communist Party. The State Council is headed by the Prime Minister of China.
A Chinese asset manager majority owned by Ant Group. Tianhong AM launched Yu’ebao jointly with Alipay (which later became Ant) in 2013, and was the first Chinese fund manager to have an AUM greater than RMB1 trillion. Tianhong AM is the largest fund manager in China.
In the Chinese context, trust companies are special purpose entities that set up “trusts” to raise funding for specific projects with a limited timespan (e.g. real estate development projects, infrastructure development projects by local governments, CapEx for companies, company mergers and restructurings). The minimum required investment amount to invest in a trust is usually high, so the majority of funding comes from high net worth retail investors and institutional investors. Trusts generally have a lifespan of 18 months to 3 years, during which coupon payments are paid out to investors but no withdrawals are allowed until the completion of the underlying project, after which principal payments are returned.
Since the 2018 banking regulation reforms in China, financial intermediaries were no longer allowed to state that they guarantee a full return of principal. This, combined with historical default rates that could be quite high, led to a decline in popularity of investing in trusts. However, it should be noted that the credit riskiness of trusts can vary significantly depending on the nature of the underlying project and entity(ies) involved.
A variable interest entity (VIE) is a legal business structure where an investor has a controlling interest even though they do not have the majority of voting rights in the firm. In the context of China, historically, many Chinese companies that are listed abroad and rely on offshore funding have a VIE structure, where shareholders of the company listed abroad have the ultimate controlling interest even though the same company has a domestic entity within China where the majority of shareholders are Chinese. Since there are certain sectors where foreign firms face restrictions in China (such as information technology), the VIE structure allows majority offshore-funded Chinese companies to be viewed as domestic companies and thereby operate in the Chinese markets without restrictions.
Vipshop is a Chinese e-commerce company that specializes in selling discounted items across a wide range of brands, product categories and price points (similar to America’s TJ Maxx).
WeBank is a private, digital Chinese bank founded in 2014 with internet giant Tencent as a co-founder and single largest shareholder. WeBank focuses on granting small loans to individual borrowers and is the first digital bank in China.
WeChat, founded by Tencent Holdings, is China’s most popular messaging application with over one billion monthly active users. It also functions as a super-application with social media, mobile payment (i.e. WeChat Pay), and other functionalities. Strictly speaking, “Weixin” refers to the domestic mainland China version of the application while “WeChat” refers to the version used overseas. The two are considered to be separate legal entities and there are some differences in terms of the functionalities available across the two versions as a result of the regulatory differences between China and abroad, although the two terms are frequently used interchangeably. We use the terms Weixin and WeChat interchangeably in our articles unless explicitly stated.
A digital, mobile payment platform operated by Tencent’s WeChat.
Weixin is the domestic mainland China version of WeChat, China’s most popular messaging application and super-application developed by Tencent Holdings (WeChat refers to the overseas version of the application). Weixin and WeChat are considered to be separate legal entities and there are some differences in terms of the functionalities available across the two versions as a result of the regulatory differences between China and abroad, although the two terms are frequently used interchangeably. We use the terms Weixin and WeChat interchangeably in our articles unless explicitly stated.
Xiaohongshu is a social media platform similar to Instagram that targets young females. The platform claims to have over 100 million monthly active users as of September 2020, of which over 70% are born during or after the 1990s.
A Chinese mobile phone and electronic appliances brand that ranks within the top three (in terms of number of shipments) in the smartphone market globally.
An extension of Chinese phone brand Xiaomi which focuses on selling various electronic gadgets and household electronic devices.
Yicai is a Chinese financial news company whose annual city classifications are the most widely used in categorizing Chinese cities into different tiers (i.e. first, second, third, etc.).
Youku is a long-video streaming platform that has both in-house developed shows and third-party developed online films and dramas. The platform also has user-uploaded videos, although the majority of the content on Youku are professionally-developed.
Yu’ebao is a money market fund developed in-house by Ant Group and managed by Tianhong Asset Management, an asset management firm which Ant is a majority shareholder of. Users can deposit money in Yu’ebao and use this to pay for their purchases on Alibaba, while interest is paid out daily and any money deposited in the account can be withdrawn at any time. Yu’ebao was the first MMF to be easily accessible to the public in China, and since 2017 it has become China’s largest MMF with over one third of the Chinese population having money invested in the fund. Yu’ebao is also the largest MMF in the world.
The name Yu’ebao roughly translates to “leftover treasure”.
Zhihu is a Chinese online forum similar to Quora where users can post questions and answer questions posted by other users, as well as post stories for other users to read and subscribe.
Zhima Credit is a credit scoring system launched by Ant Group in 2015 that has since become the de facto credit scoring system in China. The Chinese government does have an official “credibility blacklist” for those who have failed to fulfill their financial obligations or are guilty of financial misconduct, but there was no official, easily accessible or widely used credit scoring system in place. Zhima Credit collects information from users of Alibaba, Ant’s CreditTech platform as well as the Chinese government’s credibility blacklist to generate credit scores for individuals and companies.
The name Zhima Credit translates to “sesame credit”.
iQIYI is an online long-video streaming platform company similar to Netflix that includes external and in-house developed online shows, dramas and movies. iQIYI was founded by Baidu in 2010 and has since been trying to expand and gain popularity outside China.
Vivo is one of China’s leading consumer electronics companies that primarily focuses on producing (relatively affordable) smart phones. As of Q1 2022, vivo is estimated to occupy approximately 17% of China’s smartphone market share and 8% of global smartphone market share (source: Counterpoint Research).