With a focus on China’s biggest internet companies, Alibaba and Tencent, the case study describes their respective histories, fintech subsidiaries and platform-based ecosystems.

An INSEAD alumnus is asked to lead a digital transformation effort in a large commercial bank. S/he designs the project, sources an entrepreneurial partner to provide the software platform, and runs a highly successful pilot test that saves millions of euros. Yet rolling out the new system to the rest of the organization proves to be almost impossible. Why, and what should s/he do next?

The case focuses on blockchain (and distributed ledger technology or DLT) – a ‘hot’ area of fintech – and on R3 as a fintech consortium that includes some of the world’s largest banks, financial institutions and regulators. R3 started out as a family office in 2014 and evolved into a fintech company focused on the application of distributed ledger technology (DLT).

When Alibaba, China’s leading digital platform and cloud-based services company, fails to acquire the US firm Moneygram, CEO Jack Ma decides to go it alone and develop a digital strategy using blockchain technology as the basis for a global remittance service, GCash, within its cloud services business.

By late 2014, Easypaisa, a mobile financial service (MFS) that enabled financial transactions through a mobile phone, had 54% of the MFS market, and was a leader in both over-the-counter (57%) and mobile accounts (75%). However, its OTC market share had dropped precipitously from 88% in the first quarter of 2013 to 62% by the end of 2014.