CRI听力:Alibaba's Big Data Blue Print

Alibaba Group just teamed up with seven banks, jointly offering loans of up to 10 million yuan that's about $1.6 million to China's small and medium-sized enterprises as the e-commerce conglomerate looks to further build a credit rating system based on online transaction histories. Li Dong has the details.

Reporter: The cooperation involves the Bank of China, China Construction Bank, Ping An Bank, China Merchants Bank, Bank of Shanghai, the Postal Savings Bank of and Industrial Bank.

According to the Hangzhou-based e-commerce giant, companies that had export transactions of more than $100,000 through Alibaba's online platforms over the past six months can apply for the loans. They can get 1 yuan worth of bank credit for every $1 in exports.

The online transaction record is the only thing required for the loan.

Wu Minzhi, vice-president of Alibaba Group says big data is the fundamental platform to realizing this kind of cooperation.

"Enterprises' information was left during their transaction by accidents and we noticed this data. Then this data were turned into useful information for the bank loan process. This cost of the data acquisition and analysis is low so the enterprises can get loans with a very low interest rate. All this is based solely on their credit data generated by their business, so, when they apply for a loan, no mortgage or assurance is needed."

According to Wu Minzhi, about 89 percent of SMEs in China find it difficult to get loans because they cannot satisfy banks' requirements.

He Guodong, manager of Shenzhen Xingjisheng Electronics, said he secured a loan of 5 million yuan from China Construction Bank through the financing service offered by Alibaba.

"In the past, the bank may have questioned this or that. But now all the information is provided by a third party, so the record they provided has higher credibility."

Wu Minzhi adds that by narrowing the credit gap between SMEs and banks, Alibaba is looking at the bigger picture of building an environment based on big data that can facilitate every aspect of trade, from information to data and logistics.

Another analyst says big data can also be used as an important way for banks to control credit risks without making heavy investments.

For CRI, I am Li Dong.