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.

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.