Fancy giving your savings to a social network

Fancy giving your savings to a social network? China's technology giants are marching onto the turf of the country's state-controlled banks, soaking up tens of billions of dollars' worth of investor money, and finally the Chinese regulators are taking notice. The move comes as Alibaba (Similar to eBay), Baidu (like Google) and Tencent (Similar to Facebook), have piled into businesses such as loans and investment products. The newcomers are using high yields to lure Chinese investors, presenting a challenge to China's state-dominated banking industry. Alipay (part of Alibaba) said it would offer investors in its new one-year wealth-management product an annualized return of 7%, while their principal will also be guaranteed. By contrast, the one-year deposit rate set by China's central bank now stands at 3%, meaning banks can offer a maximum rate of 3.3% for one-year time-deposits under government rules. (VIEW LINK)