NetEase (NASDAQ: NTES), a large Chinese tech firm that has a significant presence in gaming, has decided to close down its personal finance app Youqian, according to a report.
NetEase attempted to enter various Fintech verticals during the boom days of peer to peer lending alongside many other big tech firms. NetEase inevitably failed to compete with dominant platforms.
At one point, NetEase announced a crowdfunding venture via subsidiary Uiji (later renamed Lede Inc.). NetEase also invested in the now-defunct real estate crowdfunding platform Asset Avenue.
Eventually, Chinese regulators cracked down on online lenders with new regulations and a policy shift away from the platforms that enabled rampant investor speculation and resulted in several epoch cases of fraud.
According to SCMP.com, Youquian stopped accepting subscriptions last week and will eliminate the app on April 1, 2020.
The decision by NetEase arrives at a time when Chinese officials have cracked down on Ant Group’s aspirations to become a financial supermarket and the largest Fintech publicly traded Fintech in the world. Ant Group is reportedly working on accomodating recent demands by authorities to quell certain financial services.
