Yu’ebao becomes nation’s biggest monetary fund

Yu'ebao, a monetary fund co-launched by Alipay under domestic e-commerce giant Alibaba Group and Beijing-based Tianhong Asset Management Co, has become China's largest single fund, China Securities Journal reported Wednesday.

Tianhong announced Wednesday that Yu'ebao's total assets have reached 250 billion yuan ($41 billion) with 49 million users as of Wednesday, up 35 percent from the end of December, when it was ranked as the second-largest fund by assets.

The latest figures show that Yu'ebao has overtaken a fund managed by China Asset Management Co (China AMC) to become the largest fund in China and the 14th largest worldwide based on Bloomberg's data, China Securities Journal reported Wednesday.

Yu'ebao, from its launch in June 2013, has grown extremely fast as it allows Alipay users to directly channel money with a minimum of 1 yuan into high-yield funds offering better returns than bank deposits, and the convenience of withdrawing money instantly into their Alipay accounts.

Monetary fund users usually have to wait an extra day for money to be transferred from funds to their bank account.

Yu'ebao said it saw an increase of 6 million users within 15 days since the end of December with fund subscription value having reached 3 million yuan per minute.

The success of the Yu'ebao model has attracted numerous market players, mainly Internet companies working with fund companies.

Tencent Holdings, China's largest Internet company by revenue, is about to launch its own monetary fund products cooperating with China AMC, Beijing Business Today reported Tuesday.

The fast increasing number of users and investment has begun to weigh on Alipay, Shanghai Securities News reported on Wednesday.

Yu'ebao users are no longer allowed to transfer a single amount of money exceeding 50,000 yuan to their Alipay accounts in a single day, or transfer an aggregated amount of more than 200,000 yuan into their Alipay accounts in a single month, according to the latest regulation on Alipay, the report said.