6 Internet finance tools in China

No 4 Internet funds

Money market funds are open-ended mutual funds that usually invest in short-term debt securities. They're widely regarded as being as safe as bank deposits, only with a higher yield. The scale of China's money market funds exploded beginning in June 2013, with burgeoning Internet finance and a variety of online wealth management products introduced by Internet giants such as Alibaba and Tencent.

Yu'ebao, China's most popular Internet fund, is an investment service jointly offered by Alipay, China's leading online payments provider, and TianHong Asset Management. The growth of new deposits at Yu'ebao has skyrocketed ever since the service was launched in June 2013. The so-called grassroots wealth management product, which is designed to make it easy for Alipay users to invest their idle cash in their Alipay accounts and receive a higher interest rate than typical bank savings deposits, is the first of its kind to combine the convenience of the Internet with the sophistication of finance.

A man uses Yu'ebao, the fund management platform under Alipay of Alibaba Group, on his smartphone in Shanghai, March 2, 2014. [Photo/IC]