Alipay mutual fund wins 2.52m investors

An online investment fund targeting Alipay customers has amassed 2.52 million users within 18 days since its launch on June 13, becoming China's largest money market fund by subscribers, according to a Monday announcement from Alipay, China's largest online payment service provider.

The online investment fund, the first available on Alipay, is called Yu'E Bao. It allows Alipay users to put money starting from 1 yuan ($0.16) into Zeng­libao, a money market fund offered by Tianhong Asset Management Co, an Alipay partner.

The total money transferred from Alipay's user accounts into the fund is 6.6 billion yuan, and as of Sunday, 5.7 billion yuan is in the fund, as investors are free to withdraw money from the fund to make online payments, Alipay said.

Alipay user investments into the money market fund averaged 1,912.67 yuan, very small compared with investments into traditional funds, according to Alipay.

Money market funds are a type of mutual fund that invests in short-term debt securities and government bonds. They usually generate low returns but are relatively less risky.

The fund saw a rare 6.299 percent annualized interest rate for the most recent 7-day period, much higher than the average 3-4 percent return for traditional money market funds in general, thanks to favorable investment timing due to tight liquidity, Tianhong told the Global Times in a statement on Monday.

But faced with an innovative product, not all Alipay users are enthusiastic, as the investment return on a money market fund is not attractive for some younger investors, and middle-­aged users see the product from Alipay as less credible than traditional distribution channels such as banks.

"I will only put idle money from my Alipay account into the fund, and it won't be much," a 22-year-old undergraduate told the Global Times Monday. "It is not worth investing as the interest rate is lower."

"I will invest my idle money somewhere else, as (the online investment fund) has no advantage," Liu Xiao, a 42-year-old finance director with a trading company, said Monday.

She said she feels safer investing in banks, which she finds more credible than an online company.