Fintech Insider Podcast by 11:FS
00:38:11 · Vijay Konduru
[00:38:11] S2: I think it's definitely very interesting. Right? Social engagement, even through influencers, has been shown to work out for different businesses at scale. Again, we've got a couple of massive fintechs in America that have grown to that scale because of their inclusion of social media campaigns and influencer campaigns into their marketing playbooks. So definitely useful. From the eighteen sixty six studio's perspective, at least from the onset, the approach that we're taking with that community and social engagement is by having exclusive content within the platform that's available to the users of the product, but then having a part of the content actually be about sharing business owners' stories. So that way, we're trying to make sure that the situation that Pav talked about, which is the, hey, status and flaunting, etcetera, does not really play out within our value chain. But that business owners can maybe, through those stories and content, see themselves or the context that's playing out for them and get some valuable insights on what to do. So that's how we are thinking about social engagement and and community and content, at least within the context of the product when we launch it.
00:39:33 · Laura Watkins
[00:39:33] S0: Wow. That's... Yeah. That's really interesting, like, kind of combating the kind of unnecessarily flaunting and telling, like, the real truth, I think, is is really interesting. Maya, we we sort of talked about, like, the kind generational play that that Acorns is making. Obviously, there's the acquisition of GoHenry. They've got the sort of early product for the very, very younger users. This sort of sits maybe somewhere in the middle, and then they have the the the kind of quote, unquote normal savings and investment product. What what do you think is that, like, kind of game here around conversations around money when through the generations as their customer base sort of ages and grows with them, I guess?
00:40:15 · Maia Bittner
[00:40:15] S3: Yeah. I think... You know? And I'm I'm optimistic for them supporting these conversations around money. You know, one of the... There's a lot of Reddit, subreddits about money that I think due to good moderation are actually incredibly valuable assets. I really like the FIRE subreddit, which stands for financial independence retire early. And so it does have this it does have this sort of status component where people are flaunting, but what they're flaunting is how little they're spending so that they can have financial independence and retire early. So that's what's high status in that community, which I think is cool. And that's what... So people are sharing hacks for how to save money and how to live on less and how to save more, which I just think is, like, really, really wholesome and really fun to see. They do recommend specific financial products sometimes, but it's usually, like, large ETFs or Vanguard index funds. That is the trend in that community, and I don't think they're, you know, getting kickbacks or anything from those referrals. And so it's kind of not... It's not on the influence or fraud side. With acorns, I haven't seen... Have they moved into the direction thereof when people do retire? And I think they're really focused on young people. Isn't that right? And I do think when people retire, they have specific financial needs. And I'm curious to see if Acorns is always gonna stay for young people and supporting them with the community side and with young children and supporting families, or if they're gonna move in the other direction of life as well and support people who are entering retirement and trying to balance their Social Security payments and being vulnerable to fraud and scams that target the elderly because I think that's an interesting space as well.
00:42:26 · Laura Watkins, Pav Gill
[00:42:26] S0: Yeah. I think that's such a great point. They've been focusing on their acquisitions to date on the... Or or, you know, the ones that we've mentioned in reference to this story. Anyway, on the younger generations, it'll be interesting to see if they either buy something or or or develop their own platform in that direction, Pav. [00:42:43] S1: I think just as we were all discussing this, it just kinda struck me what the bigger play might be, which could be obvious, I don't know, which is as a US saving and investing business, I think if you're trying to if you're trying to innovate and study trends and build products to to be fit for those trends, right, and service them, I think 1,600,000 users is the best kind of dataset you can get in order to develop your products and innovate. So I think that's... That would be probably, if I wouldn't... To make a wild guess, the underlying purpose of the acquisition. So using AI potentially, since we're on that topic, to analyze what's happening, what's what people are discussing, what their habits are, and then using those analytics to develop or innovate products that would be suitable or or apt to to service that kind of base. [00:43:39] S0: That's so interesting. Like, a 1,600,000 person focus group almost. Yeah. Maya, look excited by that prospect. What do you think?
00:43:39 · Laura Watkins, Maia Bittner
[00:43:39] S0: That's so interesting. Like, a 1,600,000 person focus group almost. Yeah. Maya, look excited by that prospect. What do you think? [00:43:47] S3: I'd... I mean, yes. It's it's very interesting. I I do also think from Fringe's perspective, I think they've built something that has created a ton of value. But, unfortunately, for them, that specific shape of business where you've built education and community is often really, really difficult to monetize effectively. There's only so many opportunities to either charge people directly, but, again, you're... Like, your customer is people who are young and trying to improve their finances, so there's probably a cap on how much you could charge them directly. Or doing referrals out to financial products and of which gets hairy. And so I wonder if one of the most valuable things about them is not just their customers, but as Paul was saying, their data and that this is really a partnership that makes a lot of sense for both companies.
00:44:36 · Laura Watkins
[00:44:36] S0: Well, we will we will see. But, yeah, I think there's, yeah, definitely value. And and, you know, congrats to to Acorns on this acquisition because it seems very, very savvy from what we've from what we've discussed this afternoon. On that note, we're just gonna take another quick pause back very shortly. Okay. Now for a quick look at the story we didn't have time to cover in full today, and that is that Google resolves cloud outage affecting UK banks and websites. This was on BBC and many other places. Google has resolved a major outage at its London data center complex, which disrupted banking services, businesses and public services across The UK on Tuesday. The disruption was linked to a power related incident in Google Cloud's Europe West 2 region. Revolut, Lloyd's and HSBC were among the banks reporting service disruptions with customers experiencing problems accessing accounts and making payments. Other affected services included Royal Mail, DPD and platform used for remote court hearings. The incident comes exactly one year after a major AWS outage, raising questions about the financial sector's reliance on a handful of cloud providers. This one is really interesting. Firstly, because the first time I heard about this one is because headlines initially went out purely about Revolut having an outage. Before it was announced, it was a much wider Google Cloud issue. But for me as a marketer is quite interesting as the brands affected carried more weight and responsibility of being down before anyone isolated the bigger issue with their host. And secondly, this is a result of what Jas Shah called on LinkedIn, the inevitable consequence of major banking apps moving to the cloud. Connectivity and uptime is great, but shit happens, which is completely true. And brands just can't afford to be on two cloud platforms at once just in case. So there is a possibility we might see a little bit more of this as brands continue to lean on single sources of failure such as Google Cloud and AWS. And obviously, there's something in the water in this particular week in October if the same happened to AWS exactly last year. But looking forward, a, the public might be slightly less spooked the next time. And b, perhaps brands can get better at managing their own comms around it.