Alibaba-affiliated money market fund Yu’ebao users hit 185 million for 2014

Today Ant Financial, Alibaba’s affiliated financial branch, revealed a few benchmark numbers for Yu’ebao, the company’s consumer-facing money-market fund.

By the end of 2014, Yu’ebao’s user count hit 185 million, up more than four times the previous year’s count of 43 million. The fund’s worth in assets reached RMB 578.93 billion (about US$93 billion) by the year’s end, marking a 200 percent annual increase.

Ant financial also claims that Yu’ebao’s funds generated RMB 24 billion (about US$3.8 billion) in value by year’s end, amounting to RMB 139 per person.

While these numbers appear massive from a birds-eye view, not all is peachy keen for Yu’ebao. The fund’s size shrunk to about US$87 million last autumn, and while these latest numbers appear to show a rebound, its days of rocket growth seem to be over.

Yu’ebao is the shell and banner for a money market fund run by Tianhong Asset Management. Alibaba’s Ant Financial purchased a majority stake in Tianhong in late 2013 for a reported US$192 million. Yu’ebao is accessible directly in Alipay Wallet, the mobile app for Alipay, Alibaba’s third-party payment software.

Yu’ebao marks Alibaba founder Jack Ma’s attempt to enter consumer banking. In the past, the ecommerce mogul has been vocal about his disdain for China’s banking industry, wherein banks typically give consumers low interest rates for opening savings accounts.

China’s tech giants don’t like to get one-upped, and other leading internet firms have also opened money-market funds similar to Yu’ebao. Tencent operates Licaitong, an analogous money market fund, and recently opened what has been described as China’s first “internet bank.” Baidu also has its hat in the ring, as does Xiaomi, which recently launched a money-market fund in beta.

Editing by Leighton Cosseboom