The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, the world’s largest bank by market capitalisation, has launched a new e-commerce platform for the Hong Kong market.

Called ‘My Life’, the multifarious platform will deliver an e-commerce mobile ecosystem that combines shopping, digital payments and financing facilities for Hong Kong-based customers and retailers, according to an Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) release.

“My Life provides a unique online platform for Hong Kong citizens to purchase quality merchandise and, at the same time, for local quality merchants to promote and distribute their products,” the release added.

Touting ICBC’s expansion and development across the territory’s lucrative retail sector, ICBC’s Head of Electronic Banking Department, Wu Xiang Jiang, said the e-Commerce platform will serve as a valuable tool to “assist enterprises to bloom in the ‘Internet Plus’ era … [establishing] new business models [to] facilitate their transformation.”

“We are committed to making contributions to promoting Hong Kong’s economic development, the improvement of people’s livelihood and society,” Wu added.

‘Internet Plus’ is a loosely defined digital development initiative spurred by the Chinese government with foster business development through internet-based services. 

Peter Leung, Deputy Chief Executive of ICBC (Asia) said the MyLife platform will serve as a bridge between ICBC and Hong Kong’s commercial sector, providing “new online sales channel … to share resources, work closely together, and to shape a better future with the enterprises together.”

Tapping into a burgeoning pet market across mainland China and its territories, the first-stage launch of MyLife will also include a specialised ‘pet retail’ section, offering customers and merchants access to more than 400 products and services related to pet food, pet utilities, pet hotel, pet training, among others.

MyLife’s launch appears to be part of a concerted push by ICBC to expand their digital banking and e-commerce facilities across their operating areas.

The release of MyLife follows the success of the ‘ICBC Mall’ platform, launched in 2014, which services over 30 million registered customers across mainland China.