Daily Times

Having witnessed unprecedented boom in the recent years, China’s internet finance industry currently leads the world when it comes to total number of users and the market size, with the country making some of the world’s largest investments in the sector by adopting financial technology (fintech) faster than anywhere else.

With four of top five companies in the world ranked in terms of market cap, China’s fintech industry is number one internationally and represents the global advanced productivity. A number of fintech companies such as Alibaba’s Ant Financial Service, Lufax, ZhongAn Insurance and JD Internet Finance are covering most aspects of domestic consumption through mobile and internet spending. As capital markets are aggressively pursuing the internet finance industry, Alibaba’s Ant Finance has closed the world’s largest private funding round for an internet company at $4.5 billion.

With the launch of multi-billion dollar China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), the flagship project of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), Chinese companies are fast moving to Pakistan to capitalize on the huge business opportunities offered by unprecedented development projects being executed in the country in a highly progressive and investment-friendly environment.

Besides Alibaba’s Ant Financial stepping into Pakistan recently, a Chinese fintech company, Webull, is also fast gaining popularity in Pakistan. Webull is providing advanced global financial information service to the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) since September 2017, and that too free of cost.

The company is also registered at US Securities and Exchange Commission and is a member of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) and the Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC).

“The aim of Webull is to be the best financial data and trading service provider for individual investors around the world. By integrating advanced information technology, data technology and financial technology with the internet as its carrier, the users can enjoy a stable, reliable and efficient financial data and trading service,” according to an official associated with the company. “People can not only manage the stock portfolios in Webull but can also complete stock transaction through this app. Free and comprehensive real-time quotes, with millisecond updates, cover the data from more than 90 countries and 106 stocks exchanges in stocks, bonds, funds, foreign currency, commodities, cryptos, derivatives and other trading products.”

Until now, as many as 153 thousand Pakistanis have registered themselves with this app to get real time information about their trading data. Graphical financial data, business analysis, industry contrast and rich tool makes the app user friendly in real meanings.

According to the statistics gathered from the Google Analytics, the 153 thousand Pakistani users of Webull app fall in the age bracket of 25 to 44 years and hail from several cities from across countries including Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Hyderabad, Peshawar and Multan. The highest number of users come from Karachi, followed by Lahore and Islamabad.

According to the available statistics, people spent average seven minutes on the Webull app, and 96.1% of the total visitors were returned customers. Of the total number of visitors, 92.4 percent were male while 7.6 percent female.

“Best App for Global Stock with outstanding features,” posted AfzaalHussainChannar from Karachi on his Facebook page.

“This is the best search for me for Pakistan Stock Exchange scripts,” wrote another app user on the social media website.

Pakistan and China are all-weather strategic cooperative partners. With the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) well underway, growth in digital sectors of both countries is set to strengthen efforts for bilateral economic cooperation and there are broad prospects of collaboration in the field of fintech between Pakistan and China.

Published in Daily Times, April 8^th 2018.