New banking emerges and super apps are thriving

Fintech: New models and new formats are coming

　　Our reporter Liu Xia


　　Nowadays, new financial companies around the world use a variety of business models. Of course, some of these models will be more powerful than others and more adaptable to the development of the times.

The picture shows the global distribution of new banks.

　　World wave of technological innovation

　　Financial technology can be simply understood as finance + technology, which refers to the use of various technological means to innovate the products and services provided by the traditional financial industry to improve efficiency and effectively reduce operating costs.

　　The US "Forbes" biweekly website reported on February 7 how innovations emerging around the world can promote the continuous progress of financial technology and prepare for the next wave of creative emergence.

New form: digital banking is on the rise

　　Around 2015, a new generation of digital banks began to emerge in the European market, and gradually reached meaningful scale and valuation, becoming the vanguard of rewriting the market competition pattern and promoting the deepening of inclusive finance.

These include German digital bank N26, UK online financial platform Revolut and mobile bank Monzo.

　　Founded in 2013, N26 is committed to providing personal customers with full online mobile banking services, including convenient mobile payment, savings credit, international transfers, travel insurance, etc. It has a complete European banking license and has accumulated more than 700 million US dollars. Financing, the valuation is as high as 3.5 billion US dollars.

Founded in 2015, Revolut provides traditional banking services and cryptocurrency transactions. It allows people to buy, sell and store digital cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin. It has also obtained a European bank license.

Founded in 2015, Monzo mainly provides a variety of financial services such as mobile banking accounts and financial management. It has more than 4 million customers in the UK and the company is valued at more than 2 billion pounds. It is voted the best bank by British consumers.

　　It is reported that these new banks have adopted an ecosystem approach: first obtain customers through bank accounts, and then provide these customers with a series of products and services.

　　Coincidentally, with the help of the rise of digital banking in other regions, American mobile banking service provider Chaim and other companies have begun large-scale expansion, but they adopt a different model based on debit exchange.

　　The above development trend then attracted a large number of fans, and then various business models emerged.

Brazilian digital bank Neon has mixed debit exchange and credit-led models; Mexican digital banks Klar (credit-led), Albo and Cuenca (account-led) and a series of companies are also emerging.

New business format: buy first and pay later

　　At the same time, the new generation of "buy before pay" model has also formed a wave and expanded globally.

　　Affirm, recently listed with a market value of more than 20 billion U.S. dollars, was founded in the United States in 2013. It is a financial services company that focuses on "prepayment". Its goal is to completely change the banking industry and allow consumers to enjoy ease Financial Services.

　　Avram provides a "buy first, pay later" small consumer loan service, and its users can use the company's APP to pay for online shopping.

This loan can be repaid in monthly installments, and the subsequent interest charged varies depending on the consumer's credit limit, but it is lower than the high interest rate attached to traditional credit cards and will not generate compound interest.

The company said in its IPO documents that its users have exceeded 6.2 million and it currently has cooperation with approximately 6,500 retailers including Wal-Mart.

　　Other companies are not far behind and have begun to expand, such as FinAccel (founded in Singapore in 2015), payment company Afterpay (founded in Australia in 2017), online loan startup Zest Money (founded in India in 2015), and financial technology The company Addi (founded in Colombia in 2018) and the most recent foreign exchange dealer Alma (founded in France in 2018).

The vigorous development and competition of these companies has also contributed to the momentum of the "buy first, pay later" model.

　　In addition, non-financial digital technology companies, including Grab, a provider of taxi and car rental services in Southeast Asia, are also considering providing "buy first, pay later" services. This is a sign of the full development of "buy first, pay later" among emerging start-ups.

In the future, the number of companies that provide "buy first, pay later" services around the world is expected to surge, and various business models will expand and succeed in different ecosystems.

　　Of course, this new format has also attracted the attention of government departments.

It is reported that after the government review, the British financial services regulator will be ordered to supervise the "buy before pay" industry that has emerged from companies such as Klarna and AfterPay.

The industry is currently conducting further consultations, and then, as time permits from the Parliament, a new law will be passed to regulate "buy first, pay later."

New trend: Super apps are popular all over the world

　　In addition to the above-mentioned innovation wave, super application software also constitutes a wave of active financial technology sweeping the world!

　　Super application software originated in China, expanding its core services through integrated payment and identity services and directly providing a series of products and services.

One example is WeChat developed by Tencent.

WeChat was originally a social network, but it has now become a software with a series of application functions: users can use various new functions that are convenient for life on this application software.

　　This move is sweeping the world!

Many startups around the world are seeking to develop their business models in the direction of super application software.

Of course, the initial core product was not all chat.

For example, in Southeast Asia, companies like shared travel service providers Go-Jek and grab are developing from a carpooling model to hierarchical financial services, and extending their business to a series of other services such as meal delivery, massage, and medical treatment.

In addition, under the influence of Go-Jek, Uber is entering the field of financial services and food delivery services.

　　The above three aspects are just a few of the many examples. The best ideas will continue to spring up all over the world and spread to other places.

As the American science fiction writer William Gibson once ridiculed: "The future has arrived, but the distribution is not even." For entrepreneurs, investors, and ecosystem builders, discovering these trends as early as possible provides them with windows and opportunities.