So yes, that was a screenshot of his friend's Zhima Credit score (aka Sesame Credit) within Alipay.

Alipay, the financial transactions platform developed by Alibaba, is one of the two largest digital payment platforms in China (the other one is WeChat Pay, developed by Tencent).

Alipay assigns its users a credit score based on their history of transactions and behavior within its payment ecosystem.

This score is used the same way a credit score is used by financial institutions in the rest of the world: to assess users' creditworthiness or lending risk.

This is my Sesame Credit score: a 681. I try to split my digital payment activity pretty evenly between WeChat Pay and Alipay, so I can maintain scores in both. The scale is 350-950.

The 4 sub-components of your Sesame Credit score are:

• Record of abiding by contracts

• Accumulated behavior (instances of transactions)

• Identity verification (self-explanatory)

• Proof of assets (self-explantory)

Other activities that contribute to this item include repayment of credit card debt, mortgage repayments etc. All normal credit score stuff.

The third component is "proof of identity". I've got my passport and Chinese driver's license here, which is necessary if you want to rent a car and waive the deposit using Sesame Credit.

The last component is "Asset Proof" and this is surely where Iose out on a score of 700+, since I don't own a car or house in China, nor have I linked my social security, taxpayer info, provident funds, etc. in Alipay.

Since I don't have any Chinese credit cards or loans, the only way my Sesame Credit score affects me is:

• Waiving the deposit on rental cars

• Waiving the deposit on power bank rentals

• Enjoying "use first, pay later" on some Taobao items

• Enjoying upfront refunds on Taobao

I don't know for sure whether Chinese banks would refer to my Zhima Credit or WeChat Pay scores if I wanted a loan or a credit card...but from what I've read online, it seems like they might, the same way a bank in the US would pull your credit score from e.g., Experian.

Anyway, in the original thread, Noah's friend said they didn't want to miss their dinner appointment or they'd have their credit score impacted.

AFAIK Alipay doesn't have a reservation service (restaurants that offer reservations are rare in China) so this should be a joke.

But even if they did, it couldn't impact your Sesame Credit, since Sesame Credit is interested in whether you violate/uphold financial agreements... (like any other credit score system)...and not whether you're an dick who no-shows on a reservation.