ABSTRACT
Chinese P2P has taken off, leaving US and UK marketplace lending in the dust. In 2014, the China Payments and Clearing Association estimated total P2P lending at $53.76 billion. By contrast, the UK industry association P2PFA estimates the UK total at just under $1.9 billion in 2014, and Foundation capital estimated 2014 US marketplace lending at $8.8 billion. 1 With such a new industry involving many smaller players, there is bound to be a large margin of error in these estimations, but even so, Chinese P2P appears to be doing about fi ve times the volume of its counterparts in the US and UK combined. Although the fi rst P2P platform in China was founded two years after Prosper emerged in the West, since 2006-2007 Chinese P2P growth has outpaced others. To understand why P2P has thrived in China, we need to understand the context behind it in different aspects: cultural, economic, and technical.
