Keep in mind it's not a technological wave of disruption this time, but a round of venture backed growth companies that compete for users, but do not need to make a profit.
Sooner or later they will need to make profit. I posit they are on a good trajectory to do so:
Square and Stripe will make profit in payments (they almost are)
Coinbase will make a profit in crypto (it's already break even)
Affirm, Lendup, Sofi etc. will make a profit in lending
Robinhood and the likes of it will make a profit in trading
The reason is simple: The traditional companies that they are displacing had an order of magnitude higher cost structure and weren't able to transform their backend legacy systems quickly enough (yes, they did transform their front-end UI/UX somewhat to match the newer ones, but the core is not scalable to be able to offer newer products). If the older companies were able to make a profit the newer ones will make greater profit. Again, to take Robinhood as an example: Free trading a great lure for users, however most of the money is made on other services e.g. float. Thus giving away a small part of revenue i.e. trading cost and recoup more from other services is huge.
Square and Stripe will make profit in payments (they almost are) Coinbase will make a profit in crypto (it's already break even) Affirm, Lendup, Sofi etc. will make a profit in lending Robinhood and the likes of it will make a profit in trading
The reason is simple: The traditional companies that they are displacing had an order of magnitude higher cost structure and weren't able to transform their backend legacy systems quickly enough (yes, they did transform their front-end UI/UX somewhat to match the newer ones, but the core is not scalable to be able to offer newer products). If the older companies were able to make a profit the newer ones will make greater profit. Again, to take Robinhood as an example: Free trading a great lure for users, however most of the money is made on other services e.g. float. Thus giving away a small part of revenue i.e. trading cost and recoup more from other services is huge.