The future of retail banking

Here is a short deck of slides I made to describe a possible future for retail banking. Saying “future” is a bit of a stretch, as most of these services are available today. They just do not work together seamlessly, and are available in the US only.

The future of retail banking:

  • My bank statements will look like a twitter timeline, an interface that works both on mobiles and desktop computers.
  • I can add metadata to each transaction, upload pictures or files, the name of the other part of the transaction is clickable and I can see a history of my relationship with them.
  • I can share my accounts entirely or only selected transactions by circles, and decide what is available to whom.
  • I can connect a third party system to visualize my assets. I can filter and analyze my expenses for all my accounts in one place, including online assets like Facebook credits or miles.
  • I can see my cashflow updated in real time, taking into account recurring expenses or upcoming incomes like salaries.
  • Algorithms help me make decisions on assets allocation, and reach savings goals.
  • I can interact with my account manager or family members directly inside the application, exchanging messages and files securely.
  • My credit rating takes into account my online reputation (ebay seller ratings, peerindex ranking, etc) and I can get immediate quotes on services like insurance or credit.
  • I can connect to third party services to accept payments in local or foreign currencies.
  • I can follow what other people are trading, and let others manage my portfolio by copying their trades.
  • The data I generate is analyzed to create recommendations and insights. I get custom offers based on my past purchases directly in my ebanking.
  • I can interact with my bank using any medium I want.
  • I can use alternative and local currencies to transact on my accounts.

 

Disclaimer: some of these startups received investment from Anthemis, a company I work for as a venture partner.

How much more money could Google be making?

Via the excellent The Browser, an article from Economist.com wondering “how to quantify the gains that the internet has brought to consumers“. The article tries to measure the unmeasurable, putting a price on the leisure time spent on the internet, or on the savings consumers make by having access to immediate information.

One thing I found particularly interesting was a McKinsey study that “asked 3360 consumers in six countries what they would pay for 16 internet services that are now largely financed by ads.”

And the answer is? “On average, households would pay $50 a month each for services they now get free.” If this is true, we are talking a LOT of money left on the table by Google, Facebook, etc.

These companies are not stupid. They have good reasons not to charge users:

  • Ads can only be displayed to users not paying for the service
  • Profiling of users through data mining is worth a lot of money (if you need proof of this, click here to read how Facebook likes reveal your gender, race, sexual orientation, etc). Data can be sold, ads efficiency can be improved.
  • Free services don’t require bulletproof user support, and therefore cost less money to maintain.
  • Most services are available free from multiple companies, if one starts to charge users will flee to the others
  • By charging users, you turn off a lot of people and reach is vastly diminished

But the landscape is changing. Let’s revisit the above in 2013:

  • Several services now have a premium offering, where you pay not to see ads. These coexist well with free offerings.
  • Data mining can be made on both free and paying users. Google has a critical mass of users, so even with a decrease in quantity, their mining will still be relevant.
  • Services like Google search or Gmail are technologically mature enough that they would require little to no user support.
  • With users building a long history with web services (I have ten years worth of archive in my Gmail), and Google search still way ahead of its competitors in terms of relevance, switching is not really an option.
  • Users are slowly but surely getting used to pay, for media (NYT, FT), small services (Harvest, Evernote), apps, music.

Considering the above, I wouldn’t be surprised if in the mid term some free web services start to charge their users. And I don’t expect users to necessarily be outraged about that. Seriously, I would find it normal to pay for Google. I’m ready for it. I just would like to know a bit ahead of time if they have such a plan, to buy a few stocks ;)

Guillaume Arluison, Cyril de Bavier, Arnaud Balme liked this post

How R&D can become a profit center

News today is that Ikea “has teamed up with Marriott International to develop a chain of hotels in the same affordable, compact, and stylish vein as the furniture store”. Also happening in Europe, Ford is announcing a car sharing service in Germany.

Increasingly, interactions between brands and clients are not limited to the controlled atmosphere of stores. They happen in many other places, via friends, at work, through countless channels. It becomes strategic for companies to get involved in this “outside world”, and influence those experience clients and prospects will get with the products.

There is also a lot of value in seeing products in situation, gathering feedback on current and future usages in the process. Just like some CEOs like to take customer service calls every once in a while, the hotels will make the boundaries that separate product makers and product users disappear.


Fans have already explored a new business for IKEA: clothing!

What we have here is a mix of lab (co-creation, feedback on products), showcase, and service. It is like R&D mixed with marketing mixed with a business that generates money.

And this is where it becomes interesting. Are we witnessing the birth of R&D 2.0, which instead of being a cost center generates money? Are services the missing piece, the one that makes co-creation profitable? It looks like it, and this is a very key development, one that could completely change the way research and development is approached by companies around the world.

This is a forward thinking move by Ikea and Ford, one that will surely be replicated in the near future. Now the challenge is to make sure clients don’t notice the fact that the average IKEA’s bed planned obsolescence is kicking in after only a few years…

Adolf J. Doerig, Ivo Näpflin, Dov Rueff liked this post

Teaching social media to 85 years old in September 2013

For a long time I have been trying to bridge the gap between my generation and seniors. I organized grandma dinners (the idea was replicated in Canada thanks to CBC coverage), interviewed retirees on their usage of new technologies (part 1, part 2), and now the next step will be a training on computers and social media I will host this September with the help of the Hospice Général, a Geneva based social institution.

The sessions will happen on Sept 19-20 and Sept 26-27 at La nouvelle Roseraie, a vacation house where the average age is 85 years old.

I look forward to see how the older citizens react to new technologies, the outlook they will have on things I take for granted like iPads, google, or wikipedia. I expect a lot of learning for both sides, a fulfilling and humbling experience. I would like to incorporate  external speakers into the program, so if you would be interested in sharing your experience with seniors don’t hesitate to contact me!

Cristiana Bolli Freitas, Nicolas Dengler, Guillaume Arluison, Melanie Ducret, David Davinroy, Sarah Lipman, Nadine Reichenthal, Guillaume Beauverd, Yann Ranchère, Cyril de Bavier, Vallabh Rao, Cherie May, Magaly Mathys liked this post

Lift13 recap video

The Lift team has produced a short video summarizing Lift13. Check it out if you want to feel the vibe of the latest edition of Switzerland’s best innovation conference.

This post is also an excuse to test the newest release of SublimeVideo [disclaimer: I am an advisor to Jilion, Sublime's parent company], the web’s best HTML5 video player now allowing for pixel perfect customized players across platforms, from IE6 to Android phones.

Touchscreens are so yesterday

A couple of new technologies will save screens from greasy fingers. No need to touch with eyeSight‘s fingertip tracking technology and the leap motion.

Just like when mobile phones created hordes of people seemingly talking to themselves in the street, expect a new generation of weird behaviors coming once gesticulating in front of a screen becomes a good way to control your computer.

I wonder if one day we will be able to talk to our machines in sign language, and turn that into text. Would be very useful for people with disabilities.

Sintermask - fabbster - 3D-printer v01

Lawyers rejoice: more copyright fights coming thanks to 3D printing

There is a lot of ground to cover before being able to print your iphones at home. But 3D printing is really raising big questions, none bigger than the intellectual property of objects.

Just like the music industry lost its power (and business model) once it lost the capacity to lock its content into objects (tapes, CDs, etc), makers will be challenged as circulating objects will be as easy as passing a file from one printer to the other.

Before long, many of us will be able to print physical objects as easily as we once burned DVDs. And just as the Internet made trading MP3 music files and ripped movies a breeze, downloading 3D images to print on your shiny new MakerBot printer will be as easy as torrenting “The Hurt Locker.”

Last week, HBO sent a cease-and-desist letter to Fernando Sosa asking him to stop selling a 3D printed iPhone dock he modeled after the Iron Throne chair from the popular HBO TV series Game of Thrones.  Even though Sosa designed the dock himself in Autodesk Maya, HBO owns the rights to the show, its characters, and apparently the inanimate objects that appear onscreen.

Link (via 3D printing)

If you have kids about to choose what to study, direct them to law. There will be a lot of work in the coming decades ;)

Olivier Mouroux, Arnaud Balme liked this post

Better personal management of energy – the next stage in the Internet revolution?

[I am hosting the 8th TechnoArk conference, see you in Sierre on January 25!]

The 8th TechnoArk Conference, to be held in Sierre on 25 January 2013, will take as its theme:

Better personal management of energy – the next stage in the Internet revolution? Towards an Internet of energy

During the last 30 years, the Internet has brought profound changes in our behaviour and our relationship with information. These changes have occurred even more rapidly since 2007, when the release of the iPhone and the subsequent emergence of information mobility enabled people to create, exchange and obtain information anytime, anywhere.

In parallel with this, a revolution on a similar scale is taking place in the world of energy, with the advent of “smart grids”, intelligent networks that use information technology to optimise the production, distribution and consumption of electricity.

  • What impact will these networks have on our society?
  • How will customers behave when, armed with their smartphones, they can track their consumption and costs in real time?
  • Which actors in the world of energy will emerge from this revolution strengthened, and which ones will be weakened?
  • Is an Internet of energy that would make our behaviour transparent the solution to the looming energy crisis?

These are the questions which the 8th TechnoArk conference will raise, giving an overview of specific situations present and future. The event will host some of the most famous specialists in the field, including Justin Segall (founder of Simple Energy), Michael Hsieh (University of California at Berkeley) and the Swiss entrepreneur Michael Dupertuis, founder of the startup Geroco.

Benjamin Weill liked this post

3D printing on the frontline

It seems a technology becomes legit when the US army starts to invest in it. Well, 3D printing, your time has come to shine to ”enable soldiers to quickly and cheaply produce spare parts for their weapons and equipment”. Just like there used to be soldiers dedicated to carrying communication equipment, we will soon have poor souls carrying 3D printers.

“Parts for [sensitive equipment like GPS or drones] break frequently, and many of them are produced overseas, so there’s a long lead time for replacement parts. [...] Instead of needing a massive manufacturing logistics chain, a device that generates replacement parts is now small and light enough to be easily carried in a backpack or on a truck.” [...]

The 3D printers are now being rolled out to the frontline in shipping containers that act as mobile production labs. The first of the $2.8m labs, which contains 3D printers and CNC machines to make parts from aluminium, plastic and steel, was sent to Afghanistan in July this year. While there are no plans to print weapons from scratch, the labs could produce spare parts to repair them, according to Pete Newell, head of the US army’s Rapid Equipping Force.

Link

The day weapons can be printed is coming sooner rather than later (a 3D printed gun was already successfully fired), and then we will be hit again by an old truth: “technology is a double edged sword”.

 

Erik Kastlander liked this post