-4that it had $ billion in stored value card liabilities as of September 2018—more than the deposits held at many depository institutions. 8 As the scale and scope of such private networks grow, so too do the convenience and benefit of transacting within the network in a self-reinforcing dynamic, called network externalities.
These network benefits may be augmented by the active use of network data for a host of purposes, from allocating and pricing credit to sharing reviews to prioritizing information that is pushed to users. In China, consumers and businesses participate in two mobile networks, Alipay and WeChatPay, which by some accounts handled more than $ trillion in mobile payments last year.