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Joining the SinoLending (点融网) board

Dianrong / Sinolending

One of the areas where I see major disruption happening over the next years is the banking industry. Most major banks are still living in the 20th century and don’t seem to realize that start-ups will turn their traditional industry upside down. Probably many feel are not only too big to fail, but also too big to change. Or more likely, their employees are generally too risk averse to innovate.

I looked at various business models and think that peer to peer (p2p) lending will be a game changer. In the US Lending Club is the leading player in this field and I wrote about them a couple of times already on this blog. They are killing it and got an investment from Google at a $1.55 billion valuation a few months ago. On the secondary market investors are willing to pay even higher prices for their shares right now. I joined the LendIt Conference in New York City in June and was impressed by how quickly the industry is maturing.

In January I was introduced to Soul Htite, co-founder and former CTO of Lending Club. He moved to Shanghai 2 years ago to set up a Chinese version of Lending Club that he called SinoLending (点融网, www.dianrong.com). SinoLending is an online lending platform where members can borrow and lend money among themselves at better interest rates. Borrowers can get loans significantly below market rates, and lenders can earn returns well above those of bank deposits, wealth management products, trust products and other traditional fixed-income investments.

One problem I have encountered many times over the past years, is that companies or individuals are not able to get bank loans. Even if the company is doing well and only needs a temporary loan, the banks are not able (or not willing) to gives these loans. This is a major problem for China’s growth and it’s an important reason why the whole shadow banking industry developed in China. SinoLending can help to solve this problem.

SinoLending’s proprietary and state of the art technology gives the company a huge advantage over traditional banks by reducing the cost of customer acquisition, underwriting, fund managements, bad debt collections, regulatory compliance, and reporting. Better rates and better returns are now a reality in China. As a lender you get returns of on average 15-20% per year, much higher than you get anywhere else, and even a lot higher than I get on my Lending Club loans. Take a look at some of their currently available loans at http://www.dianrong.com/browse/browse. Anybody in China can sign up and immediately invest in loans, even if you just want to put a few hundred Renminbi in.

View from the SinoLending head office in Shanghai

View from the SinoLending/Dianrong offices in Shanghai

I looked at several China based p2p platforms and think SinoLending is by far the most professional with an excellent back-end system (similar to Lending Club) and a great Chinese management team. Although there is a big regulatory risk in China I believe this company can become the leader in this space because of Soul’s previous experience, because of his strong team and because of their good local connections. Therefore I am happy to announce that after a few months of advising the company I now formally joined the SinoLending board, so I can help the company even better to achieve its goals.

Good luck to the Sinolending/Dianrong team and let’s make this a huge success together!

If you read Chinese, Forbes China had a good article on SinoLending in its issue from July 15.

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Hiking the Hong Kong Trail

Hong Kong Trail

On Saturday Marcel Ekkel and I went for a long hike on Hong Kong Island, doing the main part of the Hong Kong Trail. We started in Big Wave Bay / Shek O, on the far eastern end of HK Island, which is officially the end of the trail. Main reason was that it would be a sunny and very hot day (up to 35 degrees) and the western part of HK Island has a lot more shade than the eastern part, so it would be better to spend the hottest part of the day on partly covered trails.

Big Wave Bay (Hong Kong Island)

I have done a lot of hikes with Marcel over the years (among others in preparation for the Trailwalker), and I like to hike with him. We’re both in decent shape and during our hikes we talk for hours about everything, from work to private life, and from politics to social issues. Marcel came to pick me up at my hotel at 7:30 AM and after discussing some logistics we took a cab to Big Wave Bay. In the taxi I had a quick breakfast (Japanese cakes from 7 Eleven) and at 8:15 we were at the start of the trail.

Hong Kong Trail

I had never been to this part of the island and I was impressed by the beautiful sandy beaches and the fact that there was hardly anybody else. Partly because it was so early of course, but during the whole day on the trail we hardly met any other people. That’s the same all over the world, people tend to stay in areas that they know, and when you are more than 2 km from the nearest parking lot you hardly see anybody anymore. I think a lot of people don’t realize how beautiful Hong Kong’s nature is and what they are missing out on.

Hong Kong Trail

The hike was pretty tough, not only because of the distance (we hiked 35 km), but also because we had to climb several mountains. And especially because of the heat: after about 20 km we had to hike over 2 hills that had no shade whatsoever and where there was no wind either. It felt like 50 degrees (and maybe it was actually) and I kept on drinking to stay hydrated. When we took a break after 25 km I realized I had drunk 7 liters already (a mix of water, Japanese sports drink and apple juice).

Marcel Ekkel on the Hong Kong Trail

After the break we came closer to urban areas but the trails were still great, and luckily a lot more covered. When we were above Wanchai we noticed that it was getting cloudy and when we hiked a bit further we felt that it might start to rain soon. So after 30 km we decided to leave the trail and hike to the top of the hill and then down on the other side to Bowen Road and Central. We ended the day at the hotel pool and hot tub with cold beer and chilled white wine, a perfect way to end a sportive day.

Hong Kong Trail

It was once again a great trail hike through the Hong Kong hills. Very different from the ones I do in Vancouver, but certainly as nice. I realize that because I do so many trail runs these days, hiking up mountains is now much easier for me than just a few months ago. Good to know and a a good reason to keep on running and hiking the British Columbia trails after this trip.

We spent a couple of days in Hong Kong with the family, I put more pictures of the trip in this set on Flickr.

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First trip back to China

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Flying back to Beijing on Air China

After 4 months of living in Vancouver we planned to spend part of our summer holiday in China. To be honest, I was not looking forward to go back. The weather in July is fantastic in British Columbia and there are still so many things that I wanted to see or do close to our new home. But my wife and kids really wanted to see their family and I also wanted to catch up with some friends and set up some business meetings, so I decided to join them.

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Beijing Olympic Forest Park and its 10 km running track on a hot summer day without pollution

We arrived in Beijing a week ago and the weather was almost as good as in Vancouver: temperatures in the lower 30s Celsius and a clear blue sky. When we had drinks with friends in a Houhai courtyard one night we could even see the stars – quite unusual in the middle of Beijing. Of course the weather did not stay long like this and when I opened the curtains in our apartment on the 3rd day Scott immediately asked me why it was so polluted outside.

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Houhai area in Beijing

But interestingly I did not mind the pollution that much anymore. While we were living in Shanghai I hated it, especially because I could not run outside and the kids often could not play in the outdoor playground at school. I guess the big difference is that I knew this will be only for a few days (or weeks) before we would be back in a country that does not need to measure its air pollution. I even went for a long run in the smog when it was a bit less severe (just over the 150 level, which is merely ‘unhealthy’), something I never did in Shanghai.

Generally I liked Beijing a lot better during the past week than I had imagined. The traffic jams were as bad as always, or maybe even worse. But we had arranged a car with driver and  had enough time, so it did not matter too much and I managed to read 2 books in the back seat while crawling through the city. Traffic is a lot worse than in Shanghai, I could never drive here myself anymore. In Vancouver I love driving, most days I open the top of my convertible while driving to and from the office, even when it’s cold. But driving a cabriolet in Beijing would be a waste of money, or at least extremely unhealthy.

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There are so many cars in Beijing that people park in the middle of the street

One night we did not have our car and had to take a taxi from dinner at the North 4th Ring Road to drinks with friends at Centro. It was raining and impossible to find a cab, the few that were available refused to take rides. Very different from when I lived her in the early 2000s, I suppose the taxi fares are still way too low so there is no incentive to take passengers on a rainy night. Luckily a friend passed by and drove us to the bar. For me it would be hard to imagine living in Beijing without a car and driver, maybe I should give public transportation a try?

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4D movie at the China Science & Technology Museum

Grace mainly spent time with her family and with the kids, taking them to (indoor) playgrounds, swimming pools, the Olympic Park (when the weather was still nice) and to lunches with her friends. I mainly spent time at home during the day, studying for my Canadian boating license (I passed the exam last night!), doing a Spanish course to brush up on my skills (I did not speak or study Spanish in almost 20 years), and to read a book on Canadian corporate tax law (which sounds more boring than it really is).

Lunch at a Japanese restaurant in Beijing

Beijing still has a lot of great Japanese restaurants

At night we met up with lots of friends, who either live in Beijing or were here on business trips. Among others we had dinner with a group of former Mercedes-Benz colleagues, some of whom I had not seen since 2002. We went to Gary’s new house one night and I visited Gary’s new company (which among others has its own cinema, so next time I’ll bring the kids so they can watch cartoons there!). We also had some business meetings and of course had a couple of 4-hands massages at Dragonfly (they should open a branch in Vancouver, I think they will do very well there).

To my surprise I enjoyed the first week a lot more than I had imagined, a change of scenery every few months is good. I realize that I still like Beijing very much, despite all its downsides. I could not live here anymore, but it’s a place I need to come back to at least once a year. The place still has the vibe that Shanghai also has, but that Vancouver is missing.