Could Facebook.com enter the online banking industry?
An interesting question was posed over at Ecademy.com by writer Thomas Power who asked, “what happens when Facebook becomes an online bank?” The more you read about the relentless snowball effect that is Facebook, the more you realize the potential it has of uprooting entire industries (such as banking).
According to Thomas Power’s estimates, Facebook should catch and pass Google in total number of visitors sometime in 2011 if it stays on it’s current course. And it could reach 1 billion users by 2012! The sheer volume of this user base (and potentially consumer base) could completely rearrange an industry such as banking.
As Thomas Power states, “When you have an audience of that size you can sell them lots of things. You can help them buy better. In fact you can sell them everything negating the need for many existing and costly suppliers and their overheads. Many. Obviously you can offer them discounts through group buying. Cellphones, laptops, cars, flights, holidays, gas, electricity, groceries to name but a few. But then when you think about it you want to manage all your members transactions. All. Everything they buy and everything they sell. And at the end of the year wouldn’t it be nice if you could complete your members tax return negating the need for most of the Inland Revenue and thousands of civil servants. And then how about manage your members patient records so you can get the best deals on pharma products and healthcare too.”
Power then goes on to ask, “so what happens when Facebook becomes a bank?
It starts with a Facebook piggy bank, payment system and credit card. Then it’s a savings account and a loan perhaps for university. What about a mortgage, life insurance, health insurance, car insurance, house insurance and a pension? After all with a billion users these should be the best deals on the planet. Volume speaks price. Low price. This is before you offer your members peer to peer lending like Lending Club giving them better interest and lower risk on their savings.”
Would you bank with Facebook?
Read the entire article here.
