Web giants step into consumer spending records

Companies backed by China's Internet conglomerates Alibaba Group Holding Ltd and Tencent Holdings Ltd have been given the green light to provide consumer credit information services, a move that is expected to not only strengthen the two companies' finance business but also give a strong boost to other entities they own.

The People's Bank of China, the central bank, said in a statement on Monday that it had given Sesame Credit Management, a business unit under Alibaba's Ant Financial Service Group, and Tencent Credit Reporting Co and six other companies six months to open their consumer credit information business.

The Shenzhen-headquartered Tencent said in an e-mail to China Daily on Tuesday that by expanding into the consumer credit reporting sector, it wants to help financial organizations improve their risk management abilities, enable more people to get easy loans and raise credit awareness, especially among young people.