Vertical financial Search is it superfluous or icing on the cake?

Recently, the main financial vertical search service platform has begun to the line of business distribution point of the process, that is, after the establishment of the online financial product Segmentation search market, began to tap from a single line of demand, into the line of the store construction, and to narrow the line with the financial services customer groups, to gather, analyze, The need for financial services under the line, and then through a number of simple business forward assessment and review, the credibility of the high credibility of the need to submit to the financial institutions.

As a result, although there is no formal financial services licences, but the vertical subdivision of the search platform has been through the establishment of offline outlets to deal with some of the traditional banking business front-end, such as the small micro-credit business in the collection of loan data and early loan verification and other specific work. For banks, whether this is the gospel or the bad news, for the financial vertical Search service platform, the construction of offline stores in the end is superfluous or icing on the cake?

On the one hand, the traditional financial institutions online services under the helpless, network-based banking services are subject to the physical radius, and marketing activities are limited by the cost of personnel and activities, in addition to a few major and national joint-stock banks in marketing and brand propaganda up and down the effort, The general regional small banks and local banks do have a shortage of market penetration and customer service. and the existence of such a market loophole is now hot peer-to-peer, as well as the previous existence of small loans, pawn, guarantee companies.

On the other hand, internet finance carries out more efficient and low-cost online financial services through fast, centralized and efficient networked platforms and data, and begins to focus on long tail markets that traditional financial institutions do not dare to deal with easily. Because for the financial institutions, the main risk and management means is offline wholesale mode, and this model does not apply to personalized, complex, differentiated the long tail part of the market, and because of this, the Internet platform derived from the data and centralized management, And the bulk of the verification and credit model to gradually in the long tail market occupies an advantage.

Therefore, in the two sides deep in their respective markets, also appeared in the business of cross and mutual infiltration. For the bank, need to open up the new business outside the traditional business, and as the user used the mobile, the Internet to migrate, while retaining the original offline service while vigorously develop online internet business. And for the Internet financial platform, especially for the traditional financial institutions to provide search and demand services to the financial vertical search service platform, it is necessary in the Internet awareness has not completely penetrated to every corner of the line, the line of customers and business through the store way of cohesive aggregation and centralized management.

However, from the future development trend of financial service institutions and the final experiential choice of the users, the possibility of migrating from line to line is increasing, that is to say, in the near future, people will get access to financial services more from the online financial platform, rather than from the offline banking outlets or other channels, A more convenient, and save time and energy costs. In the era of fragmentation, financial services may be hidden in this fragmentation.

So, from this point of view, financial vertical search service platform now spend a lot of energy online under the cloth point, or a proprietary store, for banks, peer-to-peer, small loans and other companies to provide business needs, or with securities and other existing stores to cooperate, the two sides jointly carry out customer cross marketing and demand for high composite use, But is the layout really reasonable? Is it superfluous or icing on the cake?

First, if the short-term gains and benefits from the point of view, such a large area of offline cloth point may be a win-lose game. Why do you say that, in the center of the urban area, basically customers and the market has been divided up, in addition to the fierce competition between commercial banks, there are a variety of small loans companies, Peer-to-peer carpet-type search, basically the customer base has been positioned, a variety of requirements to contact the channel has been established. In this case, the online Financial Search service platform to enter the offline field, to gather, organize, or even do the bank's front-end business as the starting point of the goal is a little whimsical. And, in the short term, a store's cost and investment is also larger, you see the bank is now in the promotion of Community banks, people have been in the last 1 kilometers of competition. For the financial search platform, perhaps the right market will be left in the non-core areas, the market penetration of the non-major commercial banks brought about by the lack of niche market opportunities.

Second, the Internet and financial cooperation, their respective roles are relatively clear, the Internet is mainly market access and distribution channels, and finance is to provide risk-controllable products. However, the financial vertical search service platform of this kind of offline store service, the connotation has been far beyond the basic import services, but extended to the credit front-end business, to do before the loan survey and data audit, and use their own business and scoring system to conduct a verification. In this way from the channel into the business front of the logic, whether there is a certain regulatory risk? Because the current domestic commercial banks in the entire business process is basically full control of the type, all the development, promotion, wind control, the system is basically covered in the regulatory system. If the financial search of this third-party platform to carry out the division of industrial chain based on banking business, whether will bring regulatory intervention? The introduction of the financial management business guidance in the clear stipulation that the banking business should not be through Non-bank channels for sales and promotion.

Finally, from the perspective of user experience and the migration of usage habits, whether it is to shop under the line, or the traditional financial institutions of the banking outlets and brokerage business department, the future will face an offline customer base to migrate to the problem, do not look at the banks are still under the strong layout of the network and Community Bank, another 10 years, 20, These redundant outlets will become unbearable load-bearing pressure on the body. On the one hand, fixed costs still exist, on the other hand, offline users have gradually developed the use of online business habits, and at that time, offline stores should end its historical mission. So, in the short term, this is a seemingly successful tactical goal, but in the long run, it must be a failed strategic goal.

Perhaps, more realistically, in the market competition is not so fierce, financial services coverage is not so high, and local small and medium-sized banks are difficult to fully cover the local area, similar to the financial vertical search service platform for financial lending convenience stores may also seize the market opportunities, and gradually expand their brand influence to the offline, Gradually establish their own loyal customer base. However, in the long run, a large area of the layout of the store, it is better to do the online channel business development, and cultivate their core competitiveness: Online Search Access + more in-depth supporting services.

Maybe, the most important intention is to further improve the processing speed and success rate of the registered business on line, the convenience store of the financial search platform is essentially a loan service place, which is a professional service between the user and the loan institution, through matching and deep service, Increase the success rate of online loans. It is understood that the current 360 platform for all types of loans, the average success rate of 15%, and through the offline store, I hope the overall increase to at least 30%.

The final result, I am afraid, is to exchange time for space. Long-term, dare not say is icing on the cake, but in the short term to the business has some help, but this time opportunity, I am afraid it is not long.