The rise of tech giants in the fund sales industry: an example of how information and digital technology rebuild platform economy

Olin business school, Washington University in St.Louis, MO, 63130, USA

bowen_0821@163.com

Abstract

Unlike its American counterpart, the Chinese financial industry has been challenged by tech giants through their digital platforms. As the entrance of the asset management industry, the fund sales industry is at the center of the revolution, with commercial banks and tech giants fighting for its control. Some scholars have discussed the competition, but none of them discussed the competition by comparing their common features as platforms. Moreover, the competition is in a two-sided multihoming market that has long been ignored by scholars but will prevail in the future. With similar coverage rates for both fund managers and investors, how do fintechs use information and digital technology gobbling a big chunk of commercial banks’ profit. This article filled the gap by examining the common features of commercial banks and tech giants as platforms, including membership externality, usage externality, and multihoming behavior. Usage externality is crucial in this competition. It promoted market efficiency by unlocking the scale effect and using big data analysis. However, unlike the competition between other platforms, membership externality has little impact on the competition among commercial banks and tech giants. With prevailing multihoming behaviors to a high degree, newly entered platforms provided almost no additional membership externality.