京东联手美国创业公司为中国消费者引入信用评分
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在美国，信用评分是一种评价信用可靠性的常规标准。虽然中国已是全球最大的经济体之一，却没有类似的信用评价标准。 一家美国公司ZestFinance将机器学习算法与大数据分析相结合，创造出更准确的信用评分，这家公司希望改变中国的现状。这家初创公司已与中国第二大电商京东商城达成合作，双方将成立一家合资公司，为中国的借贷平台提供信用风险评分，便于其向消费者发放贷款。 作为此次交易的一部分，京东已注资ZestFinance公司，但具体投资金额并未披露。ZestFinance到目前为止已融资1亿美元。 ZestFinance由原谷歌资深员工道格拉斯•梅里尔在3年前创立，该公司采用大数据分析进行信用评分，帮助借贷者更准确地评估借款对象。它摒弃了根据10-15条数据来决定信用可靠性的老方法，而是使用成千上万个数据点，可在几秒内评估出借款人偿还贷款的能力。 前谷歌首席信息官兼工程设计副总裁梅里尔表示，中国为ZestFinance提供了巨大的机会，因为目前中国并没有与美国类似的中央信贷管理局。他解释称，仅20%的中国人拥有信用卡，其他人使用现金和借记卡购物。 梅里尔说道：“缺少信用评分的中国，需要一条提供信贷的途径。” ZestFinance与京东的新信用评分将率先应用于这家中国电子商务巨头。在京东购物的中国消费者，现在可以向京东申请一定的信用额度，用于购物。ZestFinance与京东将利用消费者以往和现在的网购习惯数据，预测贷款风险。 例如，他们采用的算法将考虑借款人购买某件商品的时间（这可能暗示其是否拥有一份正式工作），购买哪类物品，以及购买昂贵物品的记录等因素。京东声称其拥有超过1亿活跃客户。 梅里尔表示，尽管京东是合资公司的第一家客户，但这种信用评分分析技术将来也可能应用于其他借贷平台或电子商务网站。 随着中国中产阶级人数的迅速增长，互联网金融尤其是网络信贷为国内科技公司带来了巨大的机遇。京东的主要竞争对手阿里巴巴旗下的蚂蚁金服，近期开始经营互联网银行——网商银行。蚂蚁金服旗下包括中国在线支付巨头支付宝。据《华尔街日报》报道，蚂蚁金服也在利用客户支付记录评估借款人的信用可靠性，并计划向中国的小企业和消费者发放500万元（约合80万美元）以下的贷款。 梅里尔表示，ZestFinance与京东也计划在近期评估中国企业的贷款风险。（财富中文网） 译者：刘进龙/汪皓 审校：任文科 |
Credit scores are a routine metric for rating credit worthiness in the United States. But there is no comparable assessment in China, despite its status as one of the world’s biggest economies. ZestFinance, a US company that blends machine-learning with big data analysis to create more accurate credit scores, is hoping to change that. The startup has partnered with JD.com, China’s second largest e-commerce company, to create a joint venture that will provide credit risk scores to Chinese lenders so they can extend credit to consumers. As part of the transaction, JD.com has invested an undisclosed amount of funding in ZestFinance, which had previously raised $100 million in financing to date. Founded by former Google veteran Douglas Merrill, ZestFinance launched three years ago to apply big data analyses to credit scoring and help lenders more accurately evaluate prospective borrowers. Instead of determining credit worthiness based on 10 to 15 pieces of data, ZestFinance uses tens of thousands of data points to assess in a matter of seconds a borrower’s ability to pay back loans. China provides a huge opportunity for ZestFinance because there is no centralized credit bureau like in the United States, said Merrill, Google’s former chief information officer and vice president of engineering. He explained that only 20% of Chinese citizens have credit cards while the rest of the population uses only cash and debit cards to pay for items. “China needs a way to provide credit in a world where there is no credit score,” Merrill said. ZestFinance and JD.com’s new credit score is being first implemented on the Chinese e-commerce giant’s site. Chinese consumers shopping on JD.com will now be able to apply for a line of credit to buy items from the e-commerce company. ZestFinance and JD.com will use data from consumers’ past and present online shopping habits to predict risk. For example, the algorithms will take into account factors like what time of day the person is buying something (which could hint whether they have a day job), what type of item they are buying, and their history of buying expensive items. JD.com says it has more than 100 million active customers. Merill says that while JD.com is the venture’s first customer, eventually the credit score analyses could be adopted by other lenders or e-commerce sites. Online banking, and in particular, web-based lending, is gearing up to be massive opportunity for Chinese technology companies as the country’s middle class explodes in size. An affiliate of JD.com’s main competitor Alibaba, Ant Financial, which operates Chinese online payment giant Alipay, today started operating its online bank, MYbank. According to a Wall Street Journal report, Ant Financial is also using customer payment history to evaluate borrowers’ creditworthiness and plans to issue loans of under 5 million yuan, or $800,000, to small businesses and consumers in China. Merill says that ZestFinance and JD.com also have plans in the future to evaluate lending risk for Chinese businesses. |
