In the modern paradigm of customer behavior and the overwhelming popularity of online services, the demand for FinTech services is unprecedentedly high. Examples of current FinTech solutions include such companies as Square, STC Pay, and Ant Financial. These enterprises focus on the innovative approaches to financial services usually presented by offline banking. According to Krivkovich et al. (2020), the COVID-19 outbreak served as a decisive factor for more than 30% of the consumers to switch to FinTech services and mobile banking. Hence, in order to understand the motivation behind such a shift, it is necessary to analyze some of these services.
Square Banking
Square Banking, with its headquarters in the US, does not identify itself as a licensed bank. It is a financial service organization that provides online banking services online and with the help of a single account. Once clients create an account, they have instant access to their checking account in a single dashboard that displays income, taxes, expenses, and other vital banking information. The organization also works with point-of-sale (POS) systems and provides clients with financial business software and various payment hardware products (Square, 2022). Thus, Square Banking is an innovative company that tries to correspond to the customers’ expectations and lifestyles modified by the pandemic.
Square is a convenient financial solution that proposes payment processing and money transfer methods. Its main value proposition is that Square offers its clients integrated solutions for business that include processing payments to employees, hiring people, managing the personnel, booking necessary appointments, managing tasks, and schedules, and selling goods and services online (Square, 2022). Combining these functions provides clients with a working solution that helps drive business processes in one application or program without collecting the data from various sources and accounts.
Square Banking secures the economic viability of its business by the variety of services provided. Aside from functional software for business, the company also provides branded checkout hardware for the industry, vertically integrating several supply chain processes. It currently functions in the United States, Canada, Australia, Japan, and Ireland (Square, 2022). Therefore, Square is a promising financial solution for small and medium businesses.
STC Pay
STC Pay is a Saudi Arabia-based FinTech company that specializes in wireless money transfers and digital wallets. It makes payments easier for clients, especially considering the security of this application and its convenience. The critical detail is that STC Pay received official permission from the Saudi government to establish the digital bank, with an operating capital of 1.5 billion riyals (STC Pay, 2022). It is a comparatively recent financial startup that makes managing finances more convenient for clients.
STC Pay works with digital insurance, microfinance, and other payment services. Although Saudi Arabia has access to digital wallets like PayPal, STC Pay is the first enterprise to receive a public digital wallet license from the Saudi Arabian government (Azhar, 2021). The government’s support and the active development of the sphere of digital finances in the country show that it is a promising direction for growth. STC Pay has a market benefit of functional variety, including wireless fund transferring and withdrawal, the ability to link one’s debit card to a phone number in order to make transfers, online shopping, and remitting money with an integrated exchange assistant (STC Pay, 2022). As a result, this service presents value to the customer in its adaptability to the online spending environment.
Public support for the product predetermines the economic viability of this product. Indeed, currently, many customers feel rather skeptical about interacting with non-licensed mobile banking services, whereas STC Pay presents an opportunity to embrace digital banking safely. Moreover, the application currently has more than 7 million active users (AlMuhanna, 2021). Hence, the capital investment in the service can be returned promptly.
Ant Group
Ant Group, formerly known as Ant Financial and Alipay, is a Chinese digital payment platform. Cooperating with China’s central bank is one of the prevalent digital banking solutions in the country (Kharpal, 2021). The company offers payment processing, money transfers, digital wallets, insurance, and personal finance services. These services are top-rated among clients, making the financial company an integral part of their daily economic activities. Ant Group is driven by innovation and sustainability, so its corporate goals align with the existing social trends. In order to pursue these goals, Ant Group is dedicated to helping small businesses and individuals across China digitalize their financial operations by accessing them with the help of the Ant infrastructure, which makes it a value proposition to the client.
The economic validity of Ant Group is characterized by an extensive target market and the relevance of the service. The platform’s focus is placed both on individuals and small and medium enterprises. Given the isolationist public policies in China, the demand for serving local businesses remains unprecedentedly high. The cooperation with the Chinese central bank and an ongoing lockdown will make Ant Group the banking platform of choice.
Conclusion
The three companies in question present value to the customer because their online operations and simplistic display bridge the gap between conventional banking and the expectations of digital market. Square provides tangible solutions to small and medium businesses in terms of sales management, while vertically integrating the supply chain with custom hardware. STC Pay presents a safe and convenient way to conduct major offline banking operations for every individual. Ant Group has identified the gap of the growing demand for serving small business and is now a leading online banking tool in China. The discussed FinTech companies satisfy clients’ needs and reflect global tendencies in the financial sphere.
References
AlMuhanna, A. (2022). STC Pay: We have more than 7,8 million users. Saudi Gazette. Web.
Azhar, S. (2021). Saudi Arabia’s STC Pay gains digital banking licence.Reuters. Web.
Kharpal, A. (2021). Jack Ma’s Ant Group gets nod to operate consumer finance firm, a key step in fixing regulatory issues.CNBC. Web.
Krikovich, A., White, O., Townsend, Z., & Euart, J. (2020). How US customers’ attitudes to fintech are shifting during the pandemic. McKinsey & Company. Web.
Square. (2022). About us. Web.
STC Pay. (2022). Payments in the palm of your hand. Web.