We often joke that if you pull out an AMEX Centurion Card in the U.S. (the real *black card*) and it gets declined when you try to use it back in China, the cashier might smile knowingly and say, “Oh, I know this card — the Black Knight Card.” Especially now that many merchants in China that used to accept AMEX credit cards have switched to POS machines that no longer support AMEX, the odds of this happening have gone up a lot if you bring your black card back to China for spending. So, let’s use this opportunity to explain why this joke exists.

Note: This article is just an entertainment news brief and does not express any particular opinion.

Black Card #1 — Global Shopping Knight Privilege

So what exactly is this “knockoff black card”? First, in China, just about any top-tier high-end UnionPay credit card likes to add the word “black” to signal that it is as “premium” as the Centurion. But this Black Knight card (Global Shopping Knight Card) is not a credit card at all — it is simply a membership card. You can see the card design in the image above, and it is pretty clearly modeled after the Centurion. It comes with some coupons that can be redeemed in stores or online. If you are interested, you can look it up yourself. It claims to cover just about everything, offering all kinds of coupons and vouchers across 24 countries worldwide, including globally famous merchants such as Bluemoon and Pechoin. I even downloaded the app to take a look, and honestly I did not see much appeal for deal hunters. Some gas discounts, KFC, and Starbucks offers might be somewhat useful — though maybe not even those.

At the same time, the card also claims the following:

As of now, total users have exceeded 50 million, with monthly active users above 25 million. Most cardholding members are high-net-worth individuals. Users aged 25-40 account for more than 60%, and 43.8% of users come from southeastern coastal provinces such as Guangdong, Zhejiang, and Jiangsu. The leading cities where users are concentrated are Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen. HT: Baidu Baike

There has also been quite a bit of negative press around this card, including complaints that it is an “IQ tax” product, such as charging a card shipping fee. You can search that on your own. But honestly, the fact that this business model can still raise funding is pretty amazing. I even checked WeChat and found that 19 of my WeChat contacts may already have signed up for this card. I guess I am really behind the times.

Black Card #2 — Global Black Card

A reader also reminded me that there is another “black card” out there called “Global Black Card.” These two are basically similar in nature, so feel free to look it up if you are interested. Here is what the card looks like:

This one seems a bit less popular. In my own social circle, at most one person appears to have it. Judging from the amount of promotional content out there, Black Card #2 has apparently been operating for quite a while as well. It also seems to have a celebrity partner. After taking a look, I have to admit the pairing kind of fits — “knockoff” vs. “copycat.”

Funding News

The following is from China Youth Daily Online.

On June 11, Global Shopping Knight Privilege, a leading domestic membership-based perks e-commerce platform, announced that it completed an A+ round worth tens of millions of U.S. dollars in May. The round was led by Zhongding Capital, with Incapital participating. This is Knight Privilege’s second round of financing following its Series A round from Incapital in April of this year. The new funds will be used for user subsidies to further expand its user base, while also supplementing operating capital.

As consumers become increasingly rational in their spending habits, membership-based perks e-commerce has become a promising market in the consumer sector. Global Shopping Knight Privilege, which focuses on membership perks services, was launched in 2018. By addressing consumer pain points, it aims to help users save time and reduce the cost of making spending decisions, covering consumption needs across all scenarios including eating, drinking, entertainment, leisure, and shopping. Using Knight Privilege has also become a new consumption habit. As one of the earliest players in this space, Knight Privilege’s rapid user growth and sharp insight into the commercial market enabled it to complete two rounds of financing within one month, putting it ahead of others in the sector. This represents a dual endorsement from both consumers and the capital markets for the membership-perks e-commerce model. As of the end of 2019, Global Shopping Knight Privilege had more than 50 million users and over 25 million monthly active users.

Global Shopping Knight Privilege founder & CEO She Xiwei said: “The original intention behind creating Knight Privilege was to build a perks platform that everyone can use. Going forward, we will comprehensively and deeply improve the consumer experience.” At present, Global Shopping Knight Privilege offers more than 200 perks and discounts, including nationwide gas discounts starting at 30% off, major dining offers starting at 50% off, and shopping discounts on popular e-commerce platforms starting at 60% off, covering the five major high-frequency lifestyle spending scenarios of “eat, drink, play, enjoy, and shop.” After this financing round, Knight Privilege will further upgrade member benefits and increase subsidies for users, enabling rapid phased growth in its user base. That, in turn, should allow it to secure more favorable and more aggregated pricing from the supply side and pass those benefits back to users, helping them save both time and money.