Bank of Google? Facebook turning into Facebank?
It sounds wild to think these companies could become major players in the financial services industry, but partnerships abroad are serving as a model.
Chinese customers of Alipay, a wing of e-commerce king Alibaba, are pouring money into Yu'e Bao, an online investment fund, and getting high rates of return of around 5% annually. They can also use the service to pay for things online.
It continues a trend we're seeing of a powerful online company with a wide reach (Alibaba) partnering with a traditional financial company (Yu'e Bao) and offering products in a fresh way for the Internet generation.
In the video below, Motley Fool banking analysts Matt Koppenheffer and contributor David Hanson talk about whether this is a direction Apple and Google could take to go further into the financial realm. But they also wonder how much the Internet still change the banking industry.
