This book is about internet finance, a concept coined by the authors in 2012. Internet finance deals specifically with the impacts of internet based technologies, such as mobile payments, social networks, search engines, cloud computation, and big data, on the financial sector. Major types of internet finance include third-party payments and mobile payments, internet currency, P2P lending, crowdfunding, and the use of big data in financial activities.

Internet finance is highly popular and heavily discussed in China. Chinese Premier Li Keqiang made the healthy development of...