According to Joseph Schumpeter creative destruction is the \u201cprocess through which something new brings about the demise of whatever existed before it\u201d Creative destruction replaces the old with the new and destabilizes established economic relations, incentivizing innovation and therefore economic growth. [1] The problem arises when the wave of creative destruction, in fact, brings more destruction than creation. Today, the confluence of globalization and technology is continuously making the gap between the rich and the poor greater. In reaction to such situation, social entrepreneurs and new businesses have arisen, looking to bridge this gap through innovation and technology. I called them the Robin Hoods of ideas and business. Among them is Robinhood, the mobile platform, founded by two Stanford graduates after the Occupy Wall Street movement, whose sole mission is to democratize access to the financial markets. [2]<\/p>\n
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The stock market is one of the best available tools that exist today for individual wealth creation. But only 10% of the adult population in the US directly owns shares. [3] Robinhood looks to democratize access to the financial markets by inspiring and empowering more people to invest in stocks with the help of technology, and by capitalizing on the vast, largely untapped market of millennial investors, which they believe can help shrink the gap between the \u201chaves\u201d and the \u201chave nots\u201d and lead to a healthier, more robust global economy. [2] Robinhood aspires to achieve this ambitious goal through an app-based stock brokerage that offers commission free trading and by helping investors learn to invest without the dizzying additional futures or price tags of current traditional discount online brokerage firms like Ameritrade. A zero-commission and easy to use stock-trading platform presents a serious value proposition for millennials and young investors.<\/p>\n
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But how does Robinhood achieve this objective and deliver such an ambitious value proposition? Steve Jobs once said \u201cgood design isn\u00b4t just how something looks and feels but how it works\u201d [4] Robinhood has internalize and owned this mentality. The platform\u00b4s nice and clean design simplifies the investment process and makes the user experience simpler and more gratifying. The interface is simple and tactile, giving people the sense that when they open the app, they are holding their money right in their hands. The company was able to put a very complex design under a very simple product and make it free. In order to accomplish this, the company was built from the ground up as efficient as possible by keeping its cost structure extremely lean: no physical locations, a small staff, no massive public relations campaigns and only one platform to maintain, passing the savings along to the costumers. Robinhood makes money by collecting interest from margin accounts, which is like a loan that lets people have more money to trade with, and by generating interest from costumers\u00b4 unused cash balances. Such a successful and innovative operating model, which allows the company to deliver its value proposition is probably the reason why in 2015 it raised $50 million in funding from a diverse set of venture capitalists like Google Ventures, and won an Apple Design Award, the first fintech app to do so.<\/p>\n
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Robinhood is now the fastest-growing brokerage in history, with more than $3 billion in trading volumes. According to the company. Its almost 1 million customers have saved some $70 million in trading commissions. [5] Some of it success may be to the fact that the established discount brokers haven\u00b4t budgeted for 15 years and badly need some fresh competition. In recent years, only institutional investors have been able to benefit from advancements in technology, while the average citizen, has seen no cost saving whatsoever. Robinhood is able to bridge solve this issue due to his unique competitive advantage of a free and mobile-first lower head cost with no branches or ads. It keeps the company ahead of competitors who have to constantly deal with high fixed costs and regulatory roadblocks. It won\u00b4t be easy for any competitor or new entrant to catch cup as long as Robinhood keeps this competitive advantage locked tight.<\/p>\n
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Going forward, the company is working to reach a broader market of consumers. For example, in May of this year, the company teamed up with LightHouse for the Blind to develop a feature the allows the Robinhood platform to be entirely accessible for people with visual disabilities. \u00a0The company is also looking for strategic partnerships with developers, letting them build its functionality into already existing products like StockTwits and Quantopian, which could revolutionize trading. [6] It also plans to include educational tips and insights about investing. And finally, it\u00b4s eyeing international expansion where Mexico can be a huge potential market as stock market penetration is considerable low and current per-trade fees can reach over $50. [7]<\/p>\n
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[1] Schumpeter, Joseph A.<\/a> (1994) [1942]. Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy<\/em><\/a>. London: Routledge. pp.\u00a082\u201383.<\/p>\n [2] https:\/\/robinhood.com\/company\/<\/a><\/p>\n [3] Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited, Retail Investors Survey 2011 (Hong Kong: Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing, 2012), and Tom Holland, \u201cAlibaba\u2019s Plan to Stuff Board Hardly in Investors\u2019 Interests,\u201d cited in Raymond Siu Yeung Chan and John Kong Shan Ho, \u201cShould Listed Companies Be Allowed to Adopt Dual-Class Share Structure in Hong Kong?\u201d p. 175<\/p>\n [4] “The Steve Jobs Nobody Knew”<\/a>. Rolling Stone<\/em>. 2016-02-24.<\/p>\n [5] https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2015\/10\/26\/free-stock-trading-app\/<\/p>\n [6] \u201cUnlocking Accessibility to the Stock Market\u201d. http:\/\/blog.robinhood.com\/news\/2016\/5\/19\/unlocking-accessibility-to-the-stock-market<\/a><\/p>\n