The Chinese general public knew little about the term VIE (variable interest entities) before the transfer of ownership of the online payments platform Alipay.

Financial website imeigu.com made a simple example of the term by comparing it to house purchasing. "Let's suppose you are a non-Beijinger who doesn't meet the requirements of buying a local house. Then it occurs to you that you may sign a 50-year lease agreement with a potential house seller, pay the rent all at once and then just move in. This is what we call VIE."

The VIE structure, which has been used by many Chinese Internet companies including Sina, Baidu, Sohu and Netease, allows foreign investors in China to gain a degree of control over companies they are not allowed to own directly.

The VIE structure has attracted public attention ever since a dispute erupted last May between Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba and American tech giant Yahoo!, which holds a minority stake in Alibaba through a VIE. Under the VIE structure, Alibaba transferred its successful online payment business Alipay to a company wholly-owned by its CEO Ma Yun in order to comply with new Chinese regulations that bars foreign investment in domestic online payment companies. The dispute raised concerns among investors about the potential risks of the VIE structure.

在支付宝股权转移之前，中国普通大众对于可变利益实体（VIE）这个词是完全陌生的。

财经网站i美股举了一个简单的例子，将VIE比作买房子：假设你是非北京户口，也不满足在京买房条件。后来你想出了一个办法，和卖家签订了一份50年的出租协议，租金一次性给清，然后你搬进去住了，这就是所谓的VIE。

在中国，某些行业的公司是“外资禁入”的。而通过VIE结构，境外投资人就可以拥有这些公司一定程度的实际控制权。多家中国互联网公司都应用了VIE结构，新浪、百度、搜狐、网易等都在其中。

去年的支付宝风波引发了大众对于VIE结构的关注。2011年5月，为了符合网上支付机构限制外资进入的新规定，中国电子商务巨头阿里巴巴集团将旗下的在线支付公司支付宝的所有权转移到了一家中国内资公司，由阿里巴巴首席执行官马云控股。美国科技巨头雅虎公司此前通过VIE结构持有阿里巴巴的少数股权，因此支付宝的股权转移引起了阿里巴巴与雅虎之间的纠纷，同时也引发了投资人对于投资VIE结构企业潜在风险的担忧。