The geography of the emergence of online peer-to-peer lending platforms in China: an evolutionary economic geography perspective

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article discusses the geography of the emergence of online peer-to-peer (P2P) lending platforms in China. Moving beyond conventional approaches in financial geography, we propose a new analytical framework drawing on evolutionary economic geography. We find that China’s P2P industry is highly concentrated in Beijing, Shenzhen, Shanghai, Hangzhou, and Guangzhou. These cities have possessed competent financial and Internet sectors before the emergence of P2P industry, and thus provide capabilities that P2P industry could build on. Moreover, experienced entrants, namely new firms founded by pre-existing firms and their employees from technologically related industries, play a crucial role in transferring capabilities from pre-existing financial and Internet capabilities into the P2P industry. In addition, the emergence of the P2P industry experienced three stages characterized by constraining environments with uncertainty coming from customers (2007–2012), enabling environments with inclusive regulations (2013–2015), and constraining environments with tight regulations (2016–2019).