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At one point in June last year, Zeng Jinpeng was more than 10,000 yuan ($1,500) in debt to a smartphone app.
The 23-year-old Shanghai resident pays for his online purchases of food, clothes, and travel with Huabei, a virtual credit card that’s part of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.’s sprawling stable of e-commerce properties. His spending often used to exceed his only source of income: the 8,000-yuan monthly allowance from his parents. He tried to repay the debt in installments, even borrowing from Jiebei, another Alibaba-owned credit service, but eventually his mother and father had to bail him out.
