NetEase to sell wealth management product

NetEase, a leading Hangzhou-based Internet technology company, officially launched a new investment product online platform Thursday, the Beijing News reported on Dec 19.

Following Baidu's Baifa, NetEase's first wealth management product, Tianjin, will be sold starting Dec 25 on that platform.

Tianjin will be launched in collaboration with Xianjinbao, a money market fund managed by China Universal Asset Management. Currently, the seven-day annualized yield of Xianjinbao is 5.97 percent.

The annual yield of Tianjin was not disclosed. However, NetEase offered "five percent" discount for users who buy the product. Taking the annualized yield of Xianjinbao into consideration, returns of Tianjin may exceed 10 percent.

When starting to sell the product on December 25, NetEase will limit the sale of Tianjin, but the specific quantity has not been disclosed. More than 100,000 people had opened accounts on Tianjin as of 5:00 pm on Dec 18.

It's not the first time that NetEase marched toward the Internet finance. Previously, NetEase Insurance cooperated with Guohua Life and Sun Life Everbright Life in universal life insurance products.

Xu Zhipeng, a researcher of Internet finance at Zero2IPO Research, said some Internet companies indirectly announced the yield when selling mutual funds. It's a grey zone of regulation, with some risks. Netizens should focus on the investment product itself, not the yield number.