In late September 2017, major Chinese fintech company CreditEase held the Silicon Valley-Beijing Dialogue 2017 Summit in San Francisco, which was launched four years ago in collaboration with IDG Capital. Its theme was the "Power of Innovation: Driving Forces Behind the Fintech Age 3.0." It attracted both American and Chinese regulators, investors, entrepreneurs, media and think tanks. It attempted to serve as a platform for exchanging ideas about fintech.
CreditEase is a leading Chinese fintech conglomerate, based in Beijing. It specializes in "inclusive finance and wealth management" as well as "payment technology marketplace lending, crowdfunding, robo-advisory, insurance technology, and blockchain products and services."
During this summit, the founder and CEO of CreditEase voiced his hopes for a beginning of an era of Chinese-American fintech collaboration, to replace existing competition. He hoped that this collaboration would occur between Beijing and Silicon Valley, bridging both online and offline endeavors. Ning's hopeful vision incorporates thorough collaboration between fintech and traditional finance, as well as between entrepreneurs and regulators.
An American representative, the ex-chairman of the House Financial Services Committee Barney Frank, voiced the significance of maintaining clear vision regarding the "two-sided nature of technology." Frank, too, advocated for increased communication between regulators and entrepreneurs.
Other speakers included Chen Chaomei, board member of Yirendai (NYSE: YRD), China's largest peer-to-peer platform and the first major Chinese fintech company to be listed. Chen observed that compared to American fintech, China has a long way to go in improving fintech regulation.
CreditEase presented its new innovations in "peer-to-peer sharing, big data, cloud computing...blockchain" and "robo-advising, smart insurance, and crowd-funding platforms." CreditEase also highlighted its overseas investments in equity and bonds, a project it has been pursuing since 2015. CreditEase has made sure to maintain a diverse global portfolio, and made numerous contributions to San Francisco's urban planning projects.
To meet the demands of its high-net-worth clients, CreditEase has been focusing on its projects abroad, while also organizing networking events with foreign companies and universities. For CreditEase, the immediate short-term goals are clear: internationalization, alongside unification through collaboration with other fintech companies. The company's globalizing collaborative strategies include business incubation, commercial cooperation and investment.