Our conclusion: the rise of the Chinese dragons reflects a unique combination over the past decade of incredibly rapid digitization and the simultaneous rise of the Chinese mass middle class, along with poorly prepared incumbent financial institutions facing off against entrepreneurial e-commerce and social media ecosystems. It is no surprise to us that China accounted for over 50% of total FinTech investments globally in the first nine months of 2016 (9M 2016) and was the only major region where FinTech investments increased in 2016 — in fact doubling in China in the first nine months of 2016 versus the same period in 2015.