“The past decade has seen considerable disruption in the traditional banking industry, especially in the areas of payments, lending, wealth management, and retail banking. Interestingly, this change has not been limited to financial technology (FinTech) start-ups. Large technology and eCommerce companies such as Google, Amazon, Facebook, Apple, and Alibaba have managed to leverage their massive reach and technological capabilities to pose a stiff challenge to competitors.”
These are the opening words of the latest report on the Fintech sector by Statista, a leading statistics website. The report itself contains 160 pages and more than 120 data tables, analyses 55 companies and can be purchased for the respectable price of $2,000.
The weighty document covers a number of interesting subjects, including a deep dive into Blockchain, a study of revenue models, case studies, the competitive landscape, a list of companies and banks and an important section on the role of women in this industry.
The report breaks down the FinTech market into the following segments:
- Digital Payments.
- Neobanking.
- Alternative Financing.
- Alternative Lending.
- Digital Investment.
Of these five segments, Digital Payments is where accounts for the greatest volume of transactions. This is partly due to the general acceptance, in both developed countries and emerging economies, of digital lenders and payments companies, including mobile wallets, P2P payments, alternative lending, cryptocurrencies and robo-advisors. Within the digital payments market, the authors identify three types of “players”:
- Providers with their own wallet, such as Venmo or PayPal;
- Providers of online payment interfaces like Stripe;
- Providers of offline B2B payments like Square. These providers earn money by charging tariffs for each transaction, which is generally paid by the seller.