360 DigiTech, Inc. (QFIN): History, Ownership, Mission, How It Works & Makes Money

How does a Credit-Tech platform like 360 DigiTech, Inc. (QFIN) navigate the complex Chinese consumer finance market to achieve a $5.96 billion market capitalization as of mid-2025? This company, a key financial partner of the 360 Group, has successfully pivoted to an 'asset-light' model, focusing on technology services like proprietary credit assessment and big data analytics instead of holding the loans themselves.

Its trailing twelve-month (TTM) revenue, reported at $2.2 billion as of June 30, 2025, shows the massive scale of its digital lending solutions, which primarily serve underserved consumers and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). If you are defintely looking for a deep dive into a high-growth fintech story that balances regulatory compliance with massive scale, you need to understand how their model works and where the next opportunities lie.

360 DigiTech, Inc. (QFIN) History

You're looking for the bedrock story of 360 DigiTech, Inc., now known as Qifu Technology, Inc., and that's smart. Understanding its history-the pivot points and the strategic shifts-is defintely key to analyzing its current position. The company didn't start as a pure fintech player; its evolution from a division of a major internet security firm to a NASDAQ-listed Credit-Tech platform is a classic case of tech-driven business transformation.

The direct takeaway is this: 360 DigiTech, Inc.'s trajectory is defined by two major strategic moves-the 2018 NASDAQ listing that injected capital and global visibility, and the 2019 shift to a 'capital-light' model that significantly de-risked the business and drove its strong financial performance, culminating in a trailing 12-month revenue of approximately $2.2 billion as of mid-2025.

Given Company's Founding Timeline

Year established

The financial technology platform, which would become 360 DigiTech, Inc., was established in July 2016. This is when the focus shifted to consumer finance, leveraging the brand recognition of its strategic partner, 360 Group.

Original location

The company was founded and is headquartered in Shanghai, China. Its current corporate office is located in the Chaoyang District of Beijing, China.

Founding team members

While the company is a spin-off from the 360 Group, specific details on all initial founding team members are not publicly available in the same way as a venture-backed startup. The success is largely attributed to the initial strategic backing and technology transfer from its parent entity, 360 Group.

Initial capital/funding

The company was Formerly VC-backed, but the precise initial capital injected at the 2016 founding is not disclosed. The first major external capital event was the 2018 Initial Public Offering (IPO) on the NASDAQ, which raised approximately $51 million.

Given Company's Evolution Milestones

Given Company's Transformative Moments

The company's ability to pivot in a highly regulated market is its defining characteristic. Honestly, without the shift to the 'asset-light' model, the growth story would look very different.

The most transformative decision was the strategic adoption of the 'capital-light' business model starting in 2019. This move fundamentally changed the nature of the business, moving it from a capital-driven lender to a technology-driven platform.

• De-Risking the Balance Sheet: By navigating borrowers directly to cooperative financial institutions, the company reduced its exposure to credit risk and regulatory scrutiny.
• Technology as the Core Product: The focus shifted to earning service fees from credit evaluation, risk management, and other technical services, rather than interest income from loans.
• Financial Impact: The asset-light model accounted for over 50% of total loans facilitated in Q1 2021, showing a massive increase of 211.9% year-over-year.

Another crucial moment was the series of strategic rebrandings. The shift to 360 DigiTech, Inc. and later to Qifu Technology, Inc. wasn't just a cosmetic change; it reflected a deliberate and evolving commitment to technology-driven solutions and adapting to the regulatory landscape. This constant evolution is why the company's market capitalization stands at about $5.96 billion as of June 30, 2025. We can see the full scope of this strategic vision in the Mission Statement, Vision, & Core Values of 360 DigiTech, Inc. (QFIN).

360 DigiTech, Inc. (QFIN) Ownership Structure

The ownership structure of 360 DigiTech, Inc. is a straightforward mix, with a substantial majority controlled by institutional investors, which is typical for a mature, publicly-traded tech platform. This means the strategic direction is heavily influenced by large funds and asset managers, but insiders still hold a significant, vested stake.

Given Company's Current Status

360 DigiTech, Inc. (QFIN) is a publicly-traded holding company, a Cayman Islands entity that operates its business in China through contractual arrangements with Variable Interest Entities (VIEs), a common structure for Chinese tech companies. Its shares trade as American Depositary Receipts (ADRs) on the NASDAQ Global Select Market under the ticker QFIN, and it also has a listing on the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong (HKEx: 3660). As of October 20, 2025, the company's market capitalization was approximately $3.62 billion. For the first quarter of 2025, the company expected to generate non-GAAP net income between RMB 1.8 billion and RMB 1.9 billion, representing significant year-over-year growth.

Given Company's Ownership Breakdown

Understanding who owns the stock is crucial because it tells you whose interests drive the company's long-term strategy and short-term decisions. Honestly, the high institutional ownership here is a sign of market trust, but you still need to watch the insider percentage-it shows management is defintely invested in the outcome. For a deeper dive into the numbers, you should check out Breaking Down 360 DigiTech, Inc. (QFIN) Financial Health: Key Insights for Investors.

Given Company's Leadership

The leadership team steering 360 DigiTech, Inc. is a mix of long-time company veterans and seasoned finance professionals, a combination that has earned them high praise in the industry. They've been recognized for their strong corporate governance and investor relations, which is a good signal for any investor.

• Haisheng Wu (Chief Executive Officer and Director): Mr. Wu has been the CEO since August 2019, having served as the company's president since its inception, bringing a deep institutional knowledge to the top role.
• Alex Xu (Chief Financial Officer and Director): Serving as CFO since July 2020, Mr. Xu has extensive experience in capital markets and corporate finance, including a prior role as Co-Chief Financial Officer of Qihoo 360 Technology Co. Ltd..
• The executive team was honored in the 2025 Extel Asia (ex-Japan) Best Managed Teams rankings, with individual awards for 'Best CEO' and 'Best CFO,' showing their operational and financial leadership is well-regarded by the investment community.

Here's the quick math: when institutional ownership is this high, the company is playing a long game, but still has to deliver predictable quarterly results to keep those big funds happy. That's the balance the current leadership has to manage.

360 DigiTech, Inc. (QFIN) Mission and Values

360 DigiTech, Inc.'s core purpose is to be a reliable technology connector in the credit market, driving value for both consumers and financial partners through a clear focus on innovation and trustworthiness. This commitment is more than just words; it's reflected in the company's strong financial performance, like the expected Q1 2025 non-GAAP net income of between RMB 1.8 billion and RMB 1.9 billion.

You're looking for the cultural DNA that underpins the valuation, and it starts with their stated principles. For a deeper dive into these guiding principles, you can explore: Mission Statement, Vision, & Core Values of 360 DigiTech, Inc. (QFIN).

Given Company's Core Purpose

The company's mission and core values are simple, which is defintely a good sign for operational clarity. They center on three active verbs that define their role in the credit-tech ecosystem (financial technology). Here's the quick math: if they fail on any one of these, their entire asset-light business model breaks.

Official mission statement

The formal mission statement is a set of mandates that define their daily work and strategic direction:

• Be a connector.
• Be trustworthy.
• Be innovative.

This mission directly maps to their business model: they connect borrowers and institutions, and they use technology to ensure that connection is trustworthy via risk management and innovative via platform efficiency.

Vision statement

Their vision statement articulates the measurable outcomes of their mission, focusing on the two key stakeholders their platform serves.

• Create a better experience for consumers to obtain credit.
• Create better value for funding partners.

The vision is about efficiency, which is crucial for a tech platform. For instance, creating better value for partners means helping them manage risk; the company's trailing twelve-month (TTM) revenue, as of June 30, 2025, stood at about $2.2 billion, showing significant scale in delivering this value. That's a huge lever.

Given Company slogan/tagline

While 360 DigiTech, Inc. doesn't rely on a single, snappy slogan, their identity is clearly rooted in their function as a technology provider. They are not a bank; they are a tech engine for finance.

• A leading Credit-Tech platform.
• Data-driven, technology-empowered digital platform.

This focus on 'Credit-Tech' is the real takeaway. It is why their Earnings Per Share (EPS) for the 12 months ending June 30, 2025, was reported at a solid $3.31, and why the market capitalization was approximately $5.96 billion at that time. They are valued for their technology, not just their loan book.

360 DigiTech, Inc. (QFIN) How It Works

360 DigiTech, Inc., which now operates as Qifu Technology, Inc., functions as a leading Credit-Tech platform in China, connecting consumers and small business owners with institutional funding partners. It makes money by providing end-to-end digital lending solutions and risk management technology, not by holding the loans on its own balance sheet-a core tenet of its asset-light model.

360 DigiTech's Product/Service Portfolio

360 DigiTech's Operational Framework

The company's operational framework is built on a high-velocity, technology-first approach that streamlines the borrower-to-lender connection and drives its revenue, which hit $728.1 million in the second quarter of 2025. This model allows for massive scale without the capital drain of a traditional bank.

• AI-Powered Origination: The platform uses its proprietary AI and Big Data analytics to perform real-time credit assessments and risk pricing, which is crucial for determining the loan terms for its more than 60 million cumulative users with approved credit lines.
• Asset-Light Funding: 360 DigiTech acts as an intermediary, facilitating loans that are funded by its network of 165 financial institutions, which is defintely a key to reducing credit risk exposure.
• Value-Chain Monetization: The company generates revenue primarily through service fees charged to financial institutions on successful loan originations and servicing, evidenced by a rising take rate that reached 5.4% in Q2 2025.
• Capital Market Efficiency: The company actively utilizes the securitization market, with its Asset-Backed Securities (ABS) issuance reaching about RMB 14.4 billion in the first half of 2025, an increase of about 45% year-over-year, which lowers funding costs for its partners.

Here's the quick math: the total loan facilitation and origination volume on the platform increased by approximately 16% year-over-year in the first half of 2025, hitting RMB 84.6 billion, showing strong demand despite external economic headwinds.

360 DigiTech's Strategic Advantages

In the highly regulated and competitive Chinese fintech market, 360 DigiTech's success comes down to a few clear, repeatable advantages that allow it to maintain a Trailing Twelve-Month (TTM) Revenue of approximately $2.2 billion as of June 30, 2025.

• Superior Risk Technology: Its advanced AI and machine learning models for credit risk management are its secret sauce, enabling better underwriting decisions than many traditional financial institutions and attracting more funding partners.
• Regulatory Alignment: The 'asset-light' model is strategically aligned with tightening regulatory rules in China, which favor technology-aided platforms over those with large, self-operated loan books, allowing the company to jump a queue in the market.
• Extensive Partner Ecosystem: A robust network of 165 financial institutions provides a diversified and stable funding base, plus it expands the reach of its products across various customer segments and geographies.
• Scalability and Efficiency: The platform business model is inherently scalable; it can onboard new users and partners with minimal marginal cost, which drives operational efficiency.

To be fair, what this estimate hides is the ongoing geopolitical and regulatory uncertainty, still, the core technology platform remains a powerful driver of shareholder value. For a deeper dive into who is investing in 360 DigiTech and the motivations behind their investment decisions, check out this insightful analysis: Exploring 360 DigiTech, Inc. (QFIN) Investor Profile: Who's Buying and Why?

360 DigiTech, Inc. (QFIN) How It Makes Money

360 DigiTech, Inc. primarily makes money by operating a credit-tech platform that connects financial institutions with consumers and small business owners in China, earning fees from loan facilitation and servicing.

The company's revenue engine is shifting toward a capital-light model, where it acts as a pure technology and risk-management service provider, minimizing its own balance sheet risk while earning a fee on the loan volume facilitated.

360 DigiTech's Revenue Breakdown

You need to understand the split between the two core revenue streams as of Q3 2025 to see where the business is truly headed. The company is actively moving away from the riskier, capital-heavy model, but the old structure still dominates the top line.

Here's the quick math based on the Q3 2025 unaudited results, which reported a total net revenue of $731.2 million:

The Credit Driven Services segment, which includes loan facilitation and servicing fees under the capital-heavy model, accounted for $543.4 million of Q3 2025 net revenue. This segment saw a sequential increase, largely driven by a rise in late payment fees, which can signal both higher revenue but also potential risk fluctuation in the loan portfolio.

Platform Services, the company's strategic focus on the capital-light model, contributed $187.8 million. This revenue stream, which is less risky because the financial partners bear the credit risk, saw a sequential decline, indicating that the shift to the preferred model is facing short-term headwinds. That's a critical point for investors to watch.

Business Economics

The economic fundamentals of 360 DigiTech are built on a high-volume, low-margin technology platform model, not a traditional bank's interest-rate spread model. The core value lies in its proprietary credit assessment technology, the Intelligence Credit Engine (ICE).

• Capital-Light Strategy: The company's goal is to be a pure technology provider. As of Q3 2025, the capital-light model and total technology solutions represented 41.7% of the total loan volume. The trend shows a strategic shift to mitigate macroeconomic pressures and regulatory risk.
• High User Retention: The platform benefits from a strong network effect, evidenced by a 92.8% repeat borrower contribution in Q3 2025. This high retention rate lowers customer acquisition costs (CAC) significantly, which is a key driver of profitability.
• Pricing Mechanism: Revenue is primarily generated through service fees charged to financial institutions (lenders) for successful loan originations and post-lending services (like collection). The fee structure is essentially a take-rate on the facilitated loan volume.
• Risk Management Moat: The business model is defensible because its AI-powered risk models are constantly refined by data from its massive user base of 283.7 million consumers. This creates a data-driven competitive advantage (an economic moat) that is defintely hard for new entrants to replicate.

360 DigiTech's Financial Performance

Despite a challenging macroeconomic environment in Q3 2025, 360 DigiTech maintained a strong profitability profile, which speaks to the resilience of its technology-driven model. You can get a deeper look at the balance sheet in Breaking Down 360 DigiTech, Inc. (QFIN) Financial Health: Key Insights for Investors.

• Profitability: For Q3 2025, the company reported a net income of $201.2 million. The operating margin remained healthy at 32.7% for the quarter.
• Asset Quality: The 90-day+ delinquency rate was 2.09% as of September 30, 2025. While this is a tightly managed figure, you must remember that in a downturn, even a slight increase can overweigh the improvement of new loans, as management noted.
• Valuation Metrics: The company is currently trading at a low multiple, with a forward P/E (Price-to-Earnings) ratio of around 2.64, which suggests the market is pricing in significant geopolitical or regulatory risk, or perhaps a lack of faith in the long-term growth trajectory.
• Capital Allocation: The trailing twelve months (TTM) Return on Equity (ROE) is robust at 30.15%, and the company maintains a low debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26, indicating conservative financial management and efficient use of shareholder capital.

The company's ability to generate cash is clear; the free cash flow yield is an impressive 50.74%. That's a huge signal of financial strength, even with revenue streams fluctuating.

360 DigiTech, Inc. (QFIN) Market Position & Future Outlook

360 DigiTech, Inc. is firmly positioned as a leading Credit-Tech platform in China, leveraging its proprietary AI-powered risk management to maintain a high-quality loan book and strong profitability despite persistent regulatory and macroeconomic pressures. The company's future outlook is defined by a strategic pivot toward efficiency gains, a continued focus on prime borrowers, and a disciplined approach to capital return, targeting a non-GAAP net income between RMB 6.0 billion and RMB 6.2 billion for the full fiscal year 2025.

Competitive Landscape

The Chinese digital lending space is highly consolidated, with a few major players dominating the institutional funding partner model. 360 DigiTech's main advantage comes from its massive, established user base and superior risk-control technology, which allows it to command a significant portion of the market's high-quality loan facilitation volume. This is a platform-driven business; scale and data win.

Opportunities & Challenges

As a seasoned analyst, I see a clear near-term roadmap for 360 DigiTech: capture market share from smaller, less-compliant players while managing the cost of regulatory compliance. The Q3 2025 revenue of RMB 5,205.7 million (US$731.2 million) shows the model is generating significant cash, but the regulatory environment is a defintely a wild card.

Industry Position

360 DigiTech holds a top-tier position among China's publicly traded Credit-Tech platforms, primarily due to its technological moat and scale. The company's beta of only 0.39 suggests its stock price is significantly less volatile than the S&P 500, which reflects the stability of its cash-generative business model, even in a volatile sector. The company's focus on technology-driven customer acquisition and risk assessment gives it a cost advantage over traditional banks and smaller FinTechs.

• Maintain a high-quality borrower profile, which is crucial for navigating China's evolving regulatory landscape.
• The Q2 2025 loan facilitation and origination volume grew approximately 16% year-over-year to RMB 84.6 billion, demonstrating resilient demand.
• The shift to a capital-light model, where institutional partners fund the majority of loans, insulates the balance sheet from direct credit risk.
• To understand the institutional drivers behind this stability, you should read Exploring 360 DigiTech, Inc. (QFIN) Investor Profile: Who's Buying and Why?

The core action for investors here is to monitor the Q4 2025 loan origination volume for any signs of material impact from the new internet loan rules, which could force a downward revision of the 2026 outlook.