Cobranding: CMB Launches First Social Bank Card with Renren Network
- The Commercial Bank of China has just announced its plan to trial a new bank card cobranded with Chinese social network Renren in July 2011.
- This card should propose several kinds of functionalities based on geolocation, on the use of mobile technologies and on sharing functions available on the social network.
- The complete programme has not yet been disclosed but we already know it will for instance enable the cardholders to receive tips and geolocated discounts every time they use Renren “check in” function to indicate where they are.
- Renren is the largest Chinese social network–Facebook is in fact forbidden in this country. These social networks display quite the same functionalities (networking, chat, wall, groups, etc.); the “Chinese Facebook” would represent some 31 million active users per month (student graduates and young employees). For CMB, this target does represent a significant pool of customers, the loyalty of whom they wish to ensure.
- This bank card would be the first to take advantage of the potential of “social” functions. As Facebook Commerce is already under development in a certain number of countries (including in France), social payment functions have, so far, only been tested on mobile media.
- The use of these social functions could be of importance for financial institutions (customer loyalty and rewards). We could for instance imagine that CMB Renren cardholders who entered their location could benefit from geolocated discounts to be stored on their bank card and used in real-time, as already proposed by the American network FreeMonee.