In the last couple of years, many P2P lending companies had to shut down temporarily due to pressure from the regulator. It happened to the leading online communities in the US, Prosper.com and LendingClub, and to the pioneers in social lending this side of the pond too.
FriendsClear.com, the French P2P lending community started a 'quiet period' back in April 2011. Yesterday, after nine months of hard work behind close doors, they are open for business again.
I invite you to watch my video interview with FirendsClear.com's Co-Founder and CEO.
Rob has always been very active online, and he's always keen to find new ways to leverage social media to better engage with his members and the american people in general.
For instance last September, to fasten the registration rate, LC gave away $2,500 cash to their 25,000 registered investor. A few months ago, Rob designed a contest urging the LC members to submit their photos which were used as background images on the site.
For those who are not familiar with Lending Club, LC is one of the leading peer-to-peer (social) lending services in the US. Renaud Laplanche, the Founder and CEO of the company (and a fellow frenchman), launched the service a few years ago, exclusively on facebook initally.
Taking Last Year's 'Debtbuster Challenge' to the Next Level A year ago, Lending Club launched 'the DebtBuster challenge' to drive awareness and registration.
I believe the challenge didn't involved any financial reward nor leverage social media. The promotion relied mainly on a partnership with five DebtBuster bloggers: debtfreeadventure, Getoutofdebt Guy, Consumerism Commentary, Debt Kid, and The Digerati Life. The bloggers offered advice and encouragement for those committed to debt reduction during the holiday season.
How Does the Contest Work This year LC partnered with Perkstreet Financial to launch ShredYourCreditCard.com. This is a proper contest urging american to record short videos, and aiming to be viral.
Basically, 'All you have to do is share your reasons for leaving a credit card behind in a video between now and January 28, 2011. If you feel compelled, destroy the card on camera to boost your likelihood of winning.'
It sounds fresh and different. But how motivated will the american people be?
Reward They will be as motivated as appealing the reward is. In this case, this is a financial reward:
'The video with the most community votes by the end of the competition will take home $1,000 cash. If you don’t get your video in right away, don’t worry. The site is giving away $50 every Wednesday to the top vote-getter of the week before. The first winner will be announced NEXT WEDNESDAY and people can vote daily.
Oh, and just in case asking friends for votes isn’t your thing, ShredYourCreditCard is giving away editorial prizes for creative submissions, too, in the form of $300 gift cards. The community of bloggers backing ShredYourCreditCard will also give away $25 gift cards to their favorite videos, so there are all kinds of ways to win.'
Partners Rob confirmed that Perkstreet and LC will partner with 10 DebtBuster bloggers. I'm still waiting for the definitive list.
Social Media Presence It looks like the initiative is led by Perkstreet: the microsite is kind of branded Perkstreet, the video (cf bottom of this post) is hosted on Perkstreet's Youtube channel, the official twitter account @ShreditCard is managed by Kyle Psaty, Perkstreet's Marketing and Community Manager. By the way, it looks like there isn't a dedicated twitter hashtag yet? They also created a facebook page which I believe will struggle to find its audience.
I believe for now no video has been submitted so far, except Perkstreet's. I'm curious to find out how many Americans will destroy their (valid!) credit card on video... Let's find out on Visible Banking next February!
By the way, Lending Club is not the only Social Lending service to launch some innovative campaigns and contests to raise debt awareness and encourage personal fiscal responsibility, and urge american to consider alternative ways to borrow money such as P2P lending. Earlier this year Prosper.com, Lending Club's key competitor in the US, launched the overly ambitious 'let's talk about the taboo' campaign which aimed to collect 100,000 stories in just 5 weeks...
More on The Contest in this Video
Wondering How it Looks Like to Shredd a Credit Card?
I invite you to watch the video I shot last week in Paris with Jean-Christophe Capelli. I met JC for the first time in NYC, the day before the very first Finovate event back in 2007. Time flies... I am glad we finally managed to shoot an interview about the innovative FriendsClear.com, the first P2P Lending marketplace in France.
We covered a lot during this session. I asked JC to introduce FriendsClear, talk about the challenges he had to overcome to launch in France, the partnership he managed to put in place with Credit Agricole PG to make the service available to the French SMEs, the successful contest they launched to increase the visibility of the service (with 120 applications from startups and SMEs).
Even though Jean-Christophe couldn't share much stats except they are closing on to 500,000 euros of loans, he shared some exclusive info on their international growth strategy... Merci encore JC! ;-)
I will be following FriendsClear closely as there is more to come from the French startup in 2010: the company is recruiting, they will increase the number of partnerships and lead referrals, they plan to launch applications on Facebook, they are thinking of organizing more frequent competitions for entrepreneurs...
I am curious to see how the relationship with Credit Agricole will develop, and if, or how, the other leading French banks will respond. The main remaining question mark is about the potential for P2P Lending in France: it will be interesting to see if the French people are confident enough to lend money to strangers via the platform. From my opinion, the biggest potential lies indeed with startups and SMEs. Either way, good luck to the dynamic FriendsClear team!
Since pretty much the launch of my Visible Banking blog, back in February 2007, I started interviewing the thought leaders, the innovators, the social media advocates in the banking and (online) finance industry. I love meeting passionate people, people with a vision, people who wants to change the world and improve other's lives. I invite you to watch my 70+ video interviews available on VB so far.
In February 2009, I started using twitter to better understand how to engage on this popular medium, share my insights and views on social media in banking, start conversations, and I met some great people from all over the world. I also wanted to find out how well financial institutions are engaging and supporting their clients. My monthly updates from the Visible Banking Twitter Watch series quickly became one of my most popular posts on my blog. I invite you to follow me @Visible_Banking and look for tweets with #VBTW.
The VBBuzz Series: Towards More Interactive Interviews I am always keen to try something new. From now on, in addition to my video interviews, I will organize and deliver interactive and insightul discussions on twitter. My goal is to find out more on the most innovative social media campaigns and initiatives launched by financial institutions and startups.
How it works: I will post an article on the VB Blog to introduce the discussion and the participants and make sure you are aware of the date and time when the conversation takes place. I will invite you to: 1. come back to me with your questions before the event, 2. track / join the conversation on twitter using #VBBuzz. Following the interview / chat, I will post a transcript on VB with the best tweets and without the noise.
VBBuzz #1 - Prosper.com's "Let's Talk About the Taboo!" It is my great pleasure to kick off this new VBBuzz series with one of the most innovative companies in online finance, Prosper.com, and a brilliant individual, Tiffany Fox, their Communications Director.
I am also hoping to have a few other special guests tomorrow evening. Stay tuned!
During our chat, I will ask Tiffany to share with us the latest stats and news from prosper.com, and she will answer my questions on their latest campaign Let's Talk About the Taboo.
I am particulary interested in finding more on: * the thinking process behind this campaign, * Prosper's marketing / social media strategy and expectations * the opinion from the american people, and the other startups also focused on helping americans achieve financial wellbeingness.
I can't wait to get hold of the stats following the end of the campaign to find out what's the proportion of stories from Prosper's own users. One of my key questions, beyond the 5-week campaign, is how the talented Prosper team do plan to use this excellent input to achieve something even greater, and help improve the lives of the 307+ million american people.
Tiffany's Bio Tiffany Fox is V.P. of Communications for Prosper, the world’s largest peer-to-peer lending marketplace with nearly one million members and over $190 million in loans. A self-proclaimed financial services geek, Tiffany has been working in the industry for over 15 years. She began her career in private banking at UBS and in 1997 went on to help build the online financial services public relations practice at Niehaus Ryan Wong. In 1999, she joined her favorite client, E-Loan, as Director of Communications. Following the 2005 sale of E-Loan to Popular, Inc., she joined Prosper, a model that E-Loan’s co-founder, Chris Larsen, had been thinking about for years prior to its inception as highlighted in a June 2001 issue of BusinessWeek.
Last week, I noticed a tweet from ProsperLoans which pointed out a post on the Credit Karma blog (I invite you to check my interview with CK's Founder). To my surprise, I couldn't find much info on Prosper.com's own online assets like their site or their corporate blog...
I think the Let's talk About the taboo is an excellent intitiative, but I must admit that I am concerned with the expectations from the brilliant Prosper team: "Odds Of Winning: The odds of winning depend upon the
number of eligible entries received during the Term, but are anticipated
to be 1 chance in 100,000." (source: Sweepstakes Rules)
They need to fully leverage social media to maximize the visibility of the campaign, make the content of the website more sharable, and review the REWARD which is not appealing enough. By the way, a few url links on the microsite are broken.
Initial Comments I invite you to watch my initial comments on the video I shot on Friday 5th March.
Interviews with Chris Larsen @Finovate 07 & Tiffany Fox @Finovate 09 Robin Hood Tax
Retail Banking Innovations 2008 aims to address new frontiers in
the industry and the changing concept of retail banking and consumer
finance in the Asia Pacific region – with a highly content-driven and
provocative agenda.
I was delighted to speak at Retail
Banking Innovations. Not only it was
my first successful speaking engagement in Asia, but I had a great time with my fellow speakers in Singapore.
As far as I am concerned, Kiva.org is the best initiative in the social lending / online finance space. I love the concept. Basically, you can contribute to make a real difference and
change the life of an entrepreneur (the majority of borrowers are women) in a third world country.
Social Media is all about people, not technology Kiva is the perfect showcase for social media. Indeed, not only
do I love the concept but I love Kiva's strategy. It is not about
the interface and the technology, it is all about people. In this case,
passionate people. The Kiva team give them the ability to express themselves on the platform via blogs and journals, they give them visibility. And what an extensive list of volunteers (editors & translators)!
I was ecstatic when I found out I would be speaking straight after Matt Flannery, Co-Founder and the CEO of the company. It was great to attend Matt's presentation... and to have such as good time together after the event. Matt, once again congrats for your French. And as agreed, let's catch up in Paris this Spring!
I hope you have already bought your ticket for Finovate 2008 in NYC on October 14th!
In the meantime, I invite you to check the conference demo lineup announced on NetBanker two days ago. It is another promising line up from Jim and Eric.
* mShift <mshift.com> MShift is the leading provider of Mobile Banking solutions in the US.
It is a competitor of Drew Sievers' mFoundry. mShift is active online too, they help a few Credit Unions to launch a Facebook application such as Keypoint Credit Union (November 2007), and SEFCU Credit Union (July 2008). I hope I will have the pleasure to interview their CEO, Awele Ndili. Coverage on NetBanker
* Inner8 <inner8.com> Discover the power of 8 - 15/09/2008?
* LendingClub <lendingclub.com> LendingClub is one of the most popular social lending sites, with Prosper and Zopa. They did a big marketing coup when they launched the service exclusively on Facebook.
Management team: Renaud LaPlanche - Founder & CEO, Patrick Gannon - SVP Lending. It is not everyday that a Frenchman creates one of the most innovative startups, especially in the booming Social Lending space. Well done Renaud!
* Pertuity Direct <pertuitydirect.com> Pertuity Direct is a financial services company which aims to bring the next generation of social lending to the web. They will launch in September 2008.
* SmartHippo <smarthippo.com> SmartHippo.com is a vertical search engine and comparison shopping service for financial products. We are the first-ever site that uses the power of community to help consumers find the best finance rates and save money.
I am not sure if they are coming, but I look forward to meet with the Senior Management of the company, people like Luke Sontag - Co-Founder & President or Mitchell Savage - EVP (Mitchell presented at FinovateStartup for Confident Technologies).
To find out more about Vidoop, I invite you to check their blog.
* Wesabe<wesabe.com> Wesabe was the first PFM online community ever launched, back in 2006. It is one of the most innovative startups out there. The latest addition to their service was to offer the option to update your Wesabe account in "real-time" via the hugely popular twitter.
Marc Hedlund became CEO after Jason Knight stepped down due to personal reasons (Jason, we all hope August's condition is improving). Just like Jason, Marc makes himself available: you can contact him directly everyday at specific times. As far as I am concerned, they have the best Marketing/Comms team: Debbie, Allese, and Gabe, are doing a great job with the bloggers.
* WeSeed <weseed.com> WeSeed is a free online community for sharing ideas and to figuring out the stock market-without the middle man telling you how to invest.
I have never met them, but it would be a pleasure to interview Jennifer Openshaw - CEO & Co-Founder if she is around. Currently, they have a splage page with several videos from YouTube. I invite you to check their Twitter page (with only 11 followers and 1 update...) They also have a page on Facebook.
* Yodlee <yodlee.com> Yodlee delivers innovative financial applications that make online banking more profitable. Accel and S1 Corporation are two of their investors. Their solutions are focused mainly on three key areas of online banking: Personal Financial Management, Payments and Customer Acquisition.
Yodlee managed to reinvent themselves: they are not the "account aggregation company" anymore. They provide an excellent Personal Finance Management solution for banks as well as individuals. They power the popular PFM service from Bank of America.
I covered the first Finovate event organized by Jim Bruene
back in October 2007 (in New York City). The event was such a success
(it sold out in only 6 weeks) that Jim decided to organize two more Finovate events in 2008: FinovateStartup & Finovate 08.
I was delighted when Jim invited me to be the official live blogger on NetBanker at FinovateStartup
in San Francisco. Before the event, I plan to blog about most of the
40 startups which will demo their products. My goal is to give you a
brief overview of those innovative startups.
SimpleTuition, find student loans - multiple lenders
I am in touch with Patrick Kandianis, Co-Founder and EVP, and Chris Stevens, VP Business Development, via Linkedin.
SimpleTuition is not a lender. They have partnered with a range of
lenders and financial institutions to share more than 100 different
education loan options with borrowers and schools. They work with many
colleges and universities to provide custom loan application solutions
and support financial aid professionals.
I was part of the panel on Web 2.0 with Rob Klapper, ex Chief Marketing Officer.
Prosper is one of the leading social lending marketplaces, with Zopa (in the UK): it is the first U.S. person-to-person lender, launched in Feb. 2006. Now, the social lending space is very busy and you can find a lot of competitors providing a similar online-community based service, usually focused on a country or territory.
I am glad I had the chance to spend a couple of minutes with Chris Larsen, Founder and CEO of Prosper. Chris is famous in the industry, he was previously the Chairman & Founder of E-Loan in the US.
During his speech at Finovate, Chris updated us on Prosper and gave us a few figures: 430,000 memberes, $91 million of loans, over 75,000 borrowers, over 168,000 loans listings, and an active community. This is an important trait of Prosper.
I believe web 2.0 companies's success will come from their ability to: * leverage the existing technologies like blogging or social networking * provide an intuitive platform to their members * engage their members and urge them to create useful content and act as advocates for the brand
Prosper do that very well. You just have to check the impressive number of blogs dedicated to Prosper and Social Lending (cf my Social Lending blogroll)
New features In the last couple of months, Prosper launched a Facebook application called Fantasy Banker. During the conference, Chris announced a couple of new features. Prosper's goal is to extend the power of the community: * now, they are leveraging the actual data from the Prosper marketplace * soon, they will provide tools to help the members to bid more efficiently * they will indicate when the ROI is too low, and they may point you to an ING Direct... * the new portfolio plans will help you to diversify your investments based on the level of risk that suits you * members will be able to post their own "community plans"
“Christophe's book is really the must-have synopsis of the current state-of-play in social media in banking. Christophe has taken a deep passion for the topic, and turned it into an account of the landscape valuable to anyone who has social media responsibilities in financial services” James Gardner, General Manager at Spigit
“Christophe is extremely well informed about the banking and financial services industries. He's at all the right conferences, and digs deep with his interviews of all the influencers and innovators. He's also a tremendously nice guy :-)” Aaron Patzer, Founder & CEO at Mint Software
“Christophe seems to have his finger on the pulse of the financial services industry. Visible Banking has become "the" source of information for innovations in the financial services industry.” Tim Collins, SVP-Experiential Marketing at Wells Fargo
I hope you have already bought your ticket for Finovate 2008 in NYC on October 14th! 
I covered 
I am in touch with 
I first met Prosper back in March 2007 at 
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