The co-founder and COO of Cashbus Li Qi recently attended the financial news column held by CBN (China Business Network). He shared many insights about Fintech industry:
1. What is the differencebetween Internet Finance vs. Fintech?
Li Qi: Internet finance was the popular term in the earlier years, while Fintech started to become a popular term during the last years. From a big picture, internet finance utilizing technology to make adifference in the Financial Service industry, so it can be seen as a type of Fintech. Thanks to the popularity of the internet, many financial businesses has been brought from offline to online, expanding the forms and channels of financial services. The application of new technologies, frequently mentioned in Fintech, leveraging this online channels to provide more sophisticated levels of financial services, especially in the area of risk control and client acquisition.
2. What are technological breakthroughs takingplace now?
Li Qi: The most frequently mentioned are big data, cloud, and AI etc. What internet did before was simply to bring offline to online, without changing the business practice radically. However, with the development of big data technology and maturing infrastructure of cloud computing, the technological breakthroughs are also changing how we operate our businesses, providing smart solutions with much higher efficiency. Take risk control as an example, a person could only handle a dozen or a few hundred applications in the past. But with the application of big data and machine learning, companies can now with ease deal with thousands and thousands of cases within the same time framework. This is not a fairytale, this is what is happening right now.
3. Why does many internet financialcompanies call themselves Fintech companies?
Li Qi: More and more internet finance companies have realized the importance of Fintech, so they do not want to fall behind the current trend. They could utilize technology to increase their efficiency, but this is also dependent on which business they are in, as some business are not heavily dependent on technology.
4. Could you mention some applications of AI?
Li Qi: AI has developed very well in many areas. For example, if you shop online you may encounter ads for recommended products, which is powered by AI technology. We are also seeing that some Real Estate startups are using AI recommendation to provide better services for their clients.
