Monthly unique devices of mobile banking reached 326 million units in China, an increase of 10.9% year-on-year. China Construction Bank led this market with 74 million units monthly unique devices. Roughly 80% of users only installed one comprehensive financial management app.

Market penetration of mobile banking was 24.2% in December 2018, with monthly unique devices totaling 326 million units. This market has started its rapid expansion since April 2017 with a net increase of 100 million users within 8 months.

Nevertheless, in the context of strengthened financial supervision as well as more fierce competition from emerging internet giants like WeChat, Alipay, and vertical financial management platforms, its rapid growth pace somehow slowed down.

Overall, it added around 26 million new users in 2018. In the next stage, getting more users engaged by improving user experience and enriching usage scenarios might be the core for growth.

Users have shown a tendency to install more than one mobile banking app. Of the top 10 mobile banking apps, China Construction Bank was way ahead with 74 million units monthly unique devices. Postal Savings Bank of China saw the fastest growth of 57.7%.

Roughly 80% of users only installed one comprehensive financial management app on their smartphones. JD Finance, the finance arm of JD.com, rose abruptly (up 42.8% annually) to be the most popular one with  25 monthly unique devices.

Xiaomi Finance ranked second with 7 million monthly unique devices, an increase of 32.2% year-on-year. The 31-40-year-olds who have already accumulated certain assets represented over 50% of total users.

Online P2P credit loan platforms had narrowed its user reach. The market penetration kept at around 1.1%. 70% of users only installed one app.

The proportion of users installing more than 4 apps declined to 2.7% in December 2018 from 5.9% the prior year period. More than 70% of users were under 36 years of age. Roughly 70% of users lived at first- and second-tier cities.

China’s post-90s start personal finance management 10 years earlier than their parents

The total e-commerce transactions of fund market in China is estimated to reach 11.2 trillion yuan (US$1.63 trillion) in 2016; it’s estimated to double the current amount to 26 trillion yuan (US$3.78 bn) in 2020.

The total insurance premium of China online insurance market totaled 360 billion yuan (US$52.4 bn) in 2016 with an increase of 132.6%.  It’s estimated to reach 935 billion yuan in year 2020.

Total transactions of China’s P2P loan market were 1.5 trillion yuan (US$217 bn) in 2016, with an increase of 70.8% from the previous year; and, it’s estimated to continue fast growth and reach 4.5 trillion yuan (US$654) in 2020.

This article is an excerpt from CIW E-Book: China Internet Insights 2017

Related whitepaper: China Internet Statistics 2017

RMB credit balance totaled 93.6 trillion yuan in 2015 with an increase of 14.9% YoY according to iResearch. Consumption credit market in China is expected to exceed 41 trillion yuan in 2019.

Mortgage remains dominant component of China’s credit market, followed by credit card and car loans.

Internet loans market exceeded 800 billion yuan in China in 2015 with an increas of 248.2% from 2014. iResearch forecasts it’s going to exceed 9 trillion yuan in 2018.

Related: China Online Payment Overview for Q2 2016