Internet finance transforms China's financial landscape

Zou Pingzuo, a researcher with the People's Bank of China, attributed Yu'E Bao's popularity and high rates of return to the government's restrictions on interest rates - a major source of bank revenue.

"Interest rates have not been liberated. To ordinary people, deposit interest rates are very low while loan rates are very high. At this point, the market remains quite unfair," Zou told the dialogue program.

The government's grip on interest rates created the chance for Yu'E Bao. And in return, Yu'E Bao's huge success might help push forward interest rate liberalization in China, he added.

Tang said China's traditional banking services has two problems - a monopoly and being inadequately market-oriented, which has left many customers under-served and dissatisfied.

Zou dismissed the idea of confrontation between Internet financing and traditional banking, saying that the two could serve different groups of customers.

Zu agreed. Traditional banks tends to serve big enterprises with very good credit records, while small and medium-sized enterprises and individuals have been under-served, which created a good opportunity for micro-loan business, he said.

The rise of Internet finance has had a strong impact on mindsets both in and outside the traditional financial sector, and some old concepts have been overturned, according to the Yu'E Bao founder.

Its stunning success has led to more Internet bees buzzing around the honeypot in China.

In October, China's search giant Baidu announced its own online wealth management product, "Baifa." Two months later, NetEase, another leading Internet technology firm, launched its first online wealth management product, "Tianjin."

Back in June of 2013, one week after the launch of Yu'E Bao, Alibaba founder Ma Yun promised to shake up the established order of China's financing in an article run by the People's Daily.

"China's financial industry needs disrupters. It needs outsiders to come in and transform it," Ma wrote.