Today’s exciting business model innovations in FinTech, many based on ShareIn’s platform technology, are a continuation of the internet’s relentless impact on established business models. This is particularly true in the retail banking sector, where a high trust touch point and the reliance on (often slow-moving) regulatory change can place delays on technological innovation bearing fruit.
In the early days of the internet its envisaged impact on business was to be totally transformational. That initial promise was sold as revolutionary and world changing – there was nothing it would not touch with its powerful new technology. The tech was exciting but what was even more exciting was the new business economics it made possible.
Today we know that initial internet bubble burst and many technology businesses full of buoyant promise went to the wall. Millions invested, millions of man hours spent, and millions of column inches written all with little tangible value to show for it.
Many of those early aspirational business ideas would eventually have their day, but at the time the world wasn’t quite ready for them.
“We tend to overestimate the effect of a technology in the short run and underestimate the effect in the long run.”
- Roy Amara
In the 20 years since the dot com bubble internet enabled technology has steadily revolutionised many business sectors and the early promise of change has come into fruition. Entire industries have been replaced by tech start-ups and a sea change in what consumers accept as normal shopping habits has come to pass. High street stalwarts have crumbled as the economics of distribution have fundamentally altered.
Wholesale industry change takes time and the reasons for this are many and varied. Wide scale adoption of technological change requires access, education, regulatory change, and consumer trust. It’s taken longer for some industries to adopt and embrace the change than others because, in no small part, the relationship they have with their customers.
Change continues and these shifts to new economic models haven’t been without controversy or scandal, but on the whole they have won through because they deliver real value to consumers.
At ShareIn we have been pioneering direct investment technology coupled with being at the forefront of regulatory change. Our growth today mirrors the consumer shift in personal finance management. Customers want control. They expect services to be convenient to access and available on their timetable. And they expect this at a competitive price. This is becoming true for all retail finance products not just savings and investments.
We anticipate more and more bank like services moving to software first business models. Companies that don’t have the legacy infrastructure and that can translate the economies of scale available in the internet into better prices are well placed to continue the internet revolution into retail finance. ShareIn are playing our part in a quiet revolution underway in retail finance products.
If you need a platform partner for your innovative FinTech product then please get in touch.