Happy New year to all. We are all #GAFA (Google Amazon Facebook Apple) people with different passports and IDs.
Our predictions “2017 Tech, Strategic, and Investment trends in WealthTech” are already out there for testing. In this first post of the year, I want to focus on a complicated topic that concerns all #GAFA people (and please stand out, if you are from another planet).
Personal data monetization is the GAFA business backbone and I foresee that in 2017 we will be hearing more about the ethics of monetizing our data in Fintech too.
I also have a wish list that includes seeing more Fintechs focused on “gating” our data, empowering us with a choice, and sharing subsequently revenues with us.
Three picks for a 2017 watch list
I picked three companies that are worth watching because they recongize our problems as #GAFA people and intend to help us.
A Telco
In September 2016, Spain’s Telefonica announced that in 2017 they will roll out a platform to enable their users to manage the use of their personal data from Google and Facebook and WhatsApp. Users will be able to block or require compensation through the OTT platform.
The Spanish carrier Telefonica is involved in many ways in the 4th industrial revolution. Telefonica owns a startup incubator based in the UK, Wayra, focused on digital business ventures since 2012 and offering the potential to access the 300million Telefónica customers globally.
Telefonica Germany (a subsidiary of the Spanish Telco) is launching O2 Bank, a digital bank, in partnership with Fidor Bank. This will allow German clients in a few minutes to open an O2 bank account (Fidor has the banking license which is valid all over Europe). The identity check will be done via a video on the customer’s smartphone. To transfer money, customers have to enter the mobile phone number of the recipient in the address book and select it for a transaction. The O2 Banking MasterCard can be activated or deactivated directly at any time via the app, and the card details can be presented for online shopping, without having the physical card in hand. A financial planning tool provides an overview of their spending and on request they can be notified in real-time of transactions and events by app push messages sent to their smartphone. Smaller consumer loans will be available directly via the app. O2 banking phone contract holders will “also benefit from a variety of perks and add-ons” when using O2 Banking, such as increased 3G or 4G data allowances (Source).
In 2017 we all need to watch how the OTT platform that empowers users with the monetization of their personal data, will be combined with the O2 Banking services.
A true digital bank
September 2016 was also when SeccoAura started accepting registrations on their alternative way of monetizing personal data. SeccoAura launched in the fashion industry, allowing customers, to earn Tokens if other users “Like” what they are wearing. If “Likes” on SeccoAura lead to a “Buy”, then the SeccoAura customer who wore the “Liked” item, will earn a referral bonus. The concept could be applied to any retail purchase and wealth can be created through these tokens.
We covered the concepts behind this breakthrough business model in Secco Bank and the Future World of MyDigitalAssets.
A chatbot Fintech
Novastone Media is a UK-based tech firm in the space of information security (similar in a way to the space that Symphony, the Wall Street darling, operates in). Novastone Media’s financial services offerings are targeting private banks, financials advisors, robo-advisors, retail banking and corporate banking.
Solutions include secure messaging platforms that empower conversations, increase engagement, offer security and compliance accountability. Novastone Media prospect clients can choose to use their messaging, chatbot, WhatsApp-like solutions, in a more conventional way. That would result in simply offering finserv end-customers protection from #GAFA using personal data.
In 2017, we will be watching whether any Novastone Media finserv client will choose to monetize their customer data securely collected through these solutions and share revenue with the end users.
Daily Fintech Advisers provides strategic consulting to organizations with business and investment interests in Fintech & operates the Fintech Genome P2P Knowledge Network. Efi Pylarinou is a Digital Wealth Management thought leader.
