By Wei Na
One week ago, a Beijing-based website launched at www.renrendai.com, bringing peer-to-peer, or P2P, lending to China. P2P lending initiated with a British company that used Internet technologies to gather online users with extra money and put them in contact with users looking for loans.
Renrendai.com's founders are a couple of young Beijingers in their 20s who got the idea from a Nobel Peace Prize winner's use of microfinancing to combat poverty. "As graduates who majored in finance and economics, we were thinking about how to fulfill crucial financial needs for individuals that are neglected among the current finance organizations, which always aim for big units," said Yang Yifu, director of operations for renrendai.com and a graduate of Peking University. "Then we were encouraged by Dr. Muhammad Yunus, who won the Nobel Peace Price in 2006 by using microcredit to extend very small loans to millions of individuals against poverty."
Inspired by the Chinese saying, "teamwork is power," these young men decided to set up a "fair, transparent, stable and efficient online platform for regular people who'd like to have investment or get loans." It took one year or so for renrendai.com to finish its market surveys and develop its website.
"As a medium that deals with people's money, we needed a lot of testing to make sure it's a platform that runs safely," Yang said. He admitted though that most Chinese were "not ready" and are worried about the stability and safety of the "private credit and microfinance industry." Renrendai.com tried to get their problems sorted out by following the models of Zopa in the UK and Prosper in the US, two of the earliest P2P lending facilitators, but Yang said that did not work out as well as hoped. "[Those companies] are very developed and regulated, partly because almost everyone [in those countries] has a complete credit record that's convenient for checking credit ratings and, later, demanding payment. It's not the same case in China though," he said. So the rules of renrendai.com are adapted based on the team's current goal and understandings about potential Chinese users.
The largest possible loan on renrendai.com is 50,000 yuan ($7,485), and interest rates are between 3 percent and 19.4 percent, guaranteed by Chinese laws. Would-be borrowers must provide ID and proof of employment. They must also have graduated from college and have an ID on a social networking site like kaixin001.com and renren.com. Several private entrepreneurs consider those last requirements to be unnecessary, but renrendai.com's founders said they want to start by targeting the people they know best, "white-collar people in the city." One woman, who goes by the handle "abcd," received 62 percent of her 8000-yuan goal from nine people who decided to help her get a new Sony laptop. A guy, known as "mealer," asked for a loan of 40,000 yuan to open up a bar but has so far received only 50 yuan. "It's really hard to get such a big loan with the interest being only 8 percent," the webmaster explained. "Besides, he lacks some certifications, and that's an issue. Actually a real headshot sometimes matters."
According to xinhua.com, local finance market analysts have said that renrendai.com has obvious advantages over the traditional model, like the low cost and high efficiency, but this pattern of risk control and credit management still needs to be observed carefully. Like every other form of investment, there are risks. Renrendai.com has confidence in the conclusion of banks and credit card centers, that "70 percent of borrowers make honest mistakes and pay overdue debt right back." They also assert that every deal is under a legal contract and thus protected by law. Still, lenders would be wise to follow one basic rule of investment: "Diversification reduces risk."
一周前，一个名叫人人贷的网站（www.renrendai.com）在北京正式上线，同时将个人对个人（P2P）借贷这一概念引进中国。P2P借贷最先开始于一个英国公司，这个公司利用互联网技术聚集了一批拥有闲置资金的网络用户，让他们跟需要资金的用户进行联系发生借贷。
人人贷（renrendai.com）的创建者是两个20多岁的北京小伙子，他们的创建理念来源于诺贝尔和平奖得主尤努斯反贫困的乡村小额贷款理念。“我们俩是学金融和经济的，毕业后我们就一直在考虑如何满足日益重要的个人间小额贷款需求，由于现在的金融机构大部分都是面向大企业，因而忽略了个人间的小额贷款需求。”人人贷的运营主管北大毕业的杨一夫说，“然后我们受到了2006年诺贝尔和平奖得主尤努斯教授影响，他运用‘微信用’给广大的农民提供小额贷款摆脱贫困。”
受中国谚语“团结就是力量”鼓励，他们决定“为有资金需求和理财需求的个人搭建一个公正，透明，稳定，有效的网络互动平台”，经过一年多时间的市场调研和网站开发，人人贷终于正式上线。
“作为一个需要处理用户资金的平台，我们需要做无数次测试来确保网站运行安全。”杨一夫说。他承认现在大部分国人没有准备好或是质疑个人信用和小额借贷行业的安全性和稳定性，但是人人贷仍尽力解决这些问题，对此人人贷采用了国外最早的P2P借贷平台Zopa（英国）和Prosper（美国）的模式。但是杨一夫说结果并不像他们当初想象地那么好，“那些平台发展比较成熟规范，一部分原因可能是在英美这些国家几乎每个人都有完整的信用记录，可以很方便地查询信用等级和讨债，但在中国情况就不同了，”他说。所以，人人贷的规则基于团队现期的目标和对中国潜在用户的了解。
目前人人贷最大可贷额度为人民币50,000元（7,485美元），贷款利率在3%到19.4%之间，符合中国法律规定。成为借入者必须提供身份证和工作证明，他们同时也要求有学历证明和常用社区网（如开心网和人人网）账号。一些人认为最后两项证明并不必要，但是人人贷创建者定位他们在前期主要的客户群体是城市白领阶层。一个昵称为“abcd”的女士在网站上发布了一笔8000元借款来买新的索尼笔记本，目前已有9个人给她投标，借款已经完成了62%。昵称为“mealer”的男孩需要40000元来开酒吧但是目前只筹到50元。“利率只有8%，想要借这么一大笔钱很难，”网站管理者解释说。“况且，他没有提供足够的证明材料，这才是主要问题，事实上真实头像还是挺重要的。”
新华网上关于人人贷的报道提到，地方金融市场分析员断言，
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