How many users now?

Freetrade Chat šŸ”„
2800

Had a friend sign up 2 days agoā€¦
654,0XX

23 Likes
2801

Focus on adding stocks not more users who then look for stocks that arenā€™t available.

2802

Friend signed up 5 mins ago, user number 658,3XX.

33 Likes
2804

Closer to 2000 per day!

1 Like
2806

Yeah, this is pretty good growth. It was 620k when I joined 4 weeks ago.

2 Likes
2807

I think this was a typo. If you look back, the actual number was 642,700

2809

1300pd would put FT on track to be at or around 1,000,000 for the end of 2021 - that would be a great milestone

4 Likes
2810

What is more important is long term users and it would be better to have 100k of these than 1mil accounts that are mostly dormant after 6 months. It will be intriguing to see how many active users there are next year after the lockdowns end and people actually have things to spend on instead of investing.
I canā€™t remember the figures but someone was saying that 212 numbers were mostly non-active :joy:

2 Likes
2812

There is no doubt that the numbers will spike around the time of the international launches, but remember: momentum takes time to develop. FT now has a very compelling offering compared to when the app was launched in the UK, but after the initial excitement it will take time for international numbers to reach the same level as UK numbers.

3 Likes
2813

6595xx this morning

31 Likes
2814

I think that the summer Crowdfunding campaign will generate a lot of new users for the company due to the marketing/PR buzzā€¦

2 Likes
2815

Should be going pass the 666 666 mark next week :smiling_imp:

1 Like
2816

This is an important point. Triodos bank for example make more money and profit on their 60,000 or so loyal (and most likely middle-class) customers than Monzo do on their 5 million. The mission to bring low-cost investing to the masses is exciting but it only works if their is a profitable core to the business.

5 Likes
2817

Exactly :+1: QUALITY not quantity customers is what makes a good business. I donā€™t think it will hurt much here as I think FT have a very solid and exciting plan but there will be an exodus of customers in the investment world soon after the GME craze and lockdowns end. This will no doubt leave some looking bigger than they actually are.

In other words the number game is a fun marker but probably the worst indicator of how well a business is actually doing. Especially when gaining new customers at a premium of free shares is taken into account :joy:

Like I said I 100% believe in FT but not due to the latest customer number and more to do with the overall vision. :+1:

1 Like
2818

As long as FT can make money in their current business model (which is presumably heavily skewed towards FX fees and presumably money from the brokers for giving them trades [EDIT: this is not true, see later posts]), thereā€™s no reason why it shouldnā€™t just scale up well.

That said, probably the only growth strategy is by increasing number of users, because if the fees increase too much, people would be tempted to leave and move to other platforms.

2819

FT certainly donā€™t do this and have made it very clear. FT want to be very transparent with their fees and not hide them like most of the other brokers. Donā€™t confuse FT with the rest.

4 Likes
2820

Donā€™t forget that new products can be added and that boosts revenue flows.

  • crypto
  • stock borrow
  • etc
2 Likes
2821

I just googled and found this thread which seems to confirm that: How does Freetrade make money? and Freetrade Review - can you trade stocks for free? - Money To The Masses

I didnā€™t realise it was illegal for them in the UK to receive money from the brokers for giving them business, TBH I donā€™t see why they shouldnā€™t be entitled to make commercial agreements for x% of the profit from the spread, as long as the spread is the same as for every customer.

But anyway, seems youā€™re right.

1 Like
2822

I think thatā€™s probably why Robinhood pulled out of their UK launch, thatā€™s how they make money and itā€™s illegal here

6 Likes
2823

Interesting, I checked both those links and neither talk about being paid for order flow but note there is a lot of confusion given the recent Robinhood headlines!

It has been discussed at length on this community and itā€™s something Freetrade have said they wonā€™t ever do, but glad this is all cleared up :slight_smile:

2 Likes