Peer-to-peer lending for 1.3 billion peers

Peer-to-peer lending continues to spread across the globe. We previously covered pioneers Zopa (UK) and Prosper (US), as well as German Smava and Dutch Boober. Recently, the concept was spotted in China. Smava’s Chinese cousin PPDai—look closely and you’ll spot a family resemblance in the design department—is currently in closed beta and will officially launch later this month. P2P lending enters a very different market in the People’s Republic, where personal credit ratings are virtually non-existent, making lending to strangers riskier business. Which is why PPdai won’t be taking on loans and ‘reselling’ them to lenders. Instead, PPdai primarily aims to standardize and facilitate loans between family and friends, which are more common in China than personal loans from banks. On a side note: acknowledging that trust is a key issue, another ‘bankless banking’ venture that’s moving swiftly is Lending Club. Just 6 weeks after launching, Lending Club has facilitated over USD 250,000 in loans. What makes Lending Club different? Starting with Facebook, it latches on to an existing social network to leverage human connections that are already in place: “We believe that person-to-person lending will gain faster adoption in an environment where people feel connected to one another.” More updates to follow as P2P lending develops! Spotted by: Claus Lehmann