Lending

In China, your online life can become part of your credit profile. Lending platform China Rapid Finance has used data on the frequency of instant messaging, the number of online friends, and even gaming habits to pre-approve millions of borrowers. Welab gives borrowers in Hong Kong a discount of 5% on the cost of a loan for connecting their Facebook accounts and a 10% break for Linkedin. With relatively few Chinese using traditional lenders like banks, there’s a big potential market for new kinds of credit. ——Shai Oster and David Ramli

Compared with the U.S. and Europe, there are fewer legal barriers to mining personal information. Premier Li Keqiang has said that 80% of data collected in China is in government hands. Welab also operates on the mainland. In exchange for a lower rate, it can look at the apps people have downloaded or their phone’s location tracker. “The behavior of your phone shows your personality,” says Simon Loong, chief executive officer of Welab. Welab says talkative people pay back loans. But the very talkative tend to default.

Since the Mao era, the government has kept a dang’an, or secret file, on almost everyone. It contains health records, school reports, and personality assessments.

Percentage of adults who borrow from financial institutions: