為開拓貸款業(yè)務，中國搜索引擎巨頭百度正對金融科技初創(chuàng)公司進行更深入的投資。

本周一，百度宣布投資從事信用評分業(yè)務的美國金融科技公司ZestFinance，主要業(yè)務是利用機器學習和海量借貸者數(shù)據(jù)，評估借貸者償還貸款的能力。

日本經(jīng)濟新聞社旗下刊物《日經(jīng)亞洲周刊》本周三報道，上月百度還投資了一家經(jīng)營比特幣支付的初創(chuàng)公司Circle Internet Financial，但投資金額并未披露。

兩項投資之前，去年百度決定與中信集團旗下中信銀行聯(lián)合成立百信銀行。百度首席執(zhí)行官李彥宏當時表示，百信銀行將是中國首家“真正既懂互聯(lián)網(wǎng)又懂金融服務”的銀行。

去年，電商巨頭阿里巴巴和開發(fā)出即時通訊產(chǎn)品微信的騰訊也成立了網(wǎng)上銀行，一場客戶爭奪戰(zhàn)就此拉開帷幕。接下來要看哪家新銀行能迎合客戶需要。

《日經(jīng)亞洲周刊》報道稱，百度還招募了多位金融業(yè)知名人士，包括美國運通、網(wǎng)絡金融平臺陸金所和中國光大銀行的高管等。

雖然Lending Club等網(wǎng)上貸款平臺在美國市場發(fā)展停滯不前，但中國的網(wǎng)絡貸款市場增長強勁。日經(jīng)新聞援引花旗集團的數(shù)據(jù)稱，去年個人小額信用（P2P）貸款市場規(guī)模接近670億美元。

百度將采用ZestFinance的信用排名技術評估客戶信用。和美國不同，中國缺少集中管理的征信機構(gòu)，而且持有信用卡的居民占少數(shù)。 （財富中文網(wǎng)）

譯者：Pessy

審校: 夏林

Chinese search giant Baidu is investing more deeply in financial technology startups as it seeks to expand its own lending efforts.

On Monday, Baidu announced an investment in ZestFinance, a startup taking on the credit scoring industry by using machine learning and a wide variety of data about borrowers to rate their ability to repay loans.

While the amount of the backing was not disclosed, Baidu also invested Bitcoin payments startup Circle Internet Financial last month, the Nikkei Asian Review?reported on Wednesday.

Both investments followed Baidu’s decision last year to form an online bank in partnership with Citic Group’s banking unit. The new bank would be the first in China that “truly understands both the Internet and financial services,” Baidu CEO Robin Li said at the time.

Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group and Tencent, owner of the WeChat messaging network, also started online banks last year, setting off a race to see which, if any, of the new institutions will catch on with consumers.

Baidu had also made several notable hires from the finance sector, the Nikkei paper reported, including executives with experience from American Express , online financial marketplace Lufax, and Everbright Bank in China.

While online lending sites like Lending Club have faltered in the United States, the market is strong in China. The peer-to-peer lending market reached almost $67 billion last year, the largest in the world, Nikkei reported citing data from Citigroup.

Baidu will use ZestFinance’s credit rating technology to assess the creditworthiness of its own users. Unlike the U.S., China lacks centralized credit bureaus, and only a small portion of the population has a credit card.