Just thought I’d throw the question out there to everyone on a boring Saturday
I read that the average number of contacts on Monzo is over 10 and I’ve also heard of people with over 100 contacts on Monzo. If that’s true then surely this is a social network to those people, as well as a money management tool?
With Snapchat’s perceived prospects recently diving off a cliff and Facebook’s ongoing trust issues, will Monzo muscle in on that market under the guise of a finance app?
Personally I only have 5 friends on Monzo but I’d love it to replace all the social media apps and websites I’ve ever signed up for and rarely ever go on.
If you don’t think they are a social media company in disguise, what would it take for them to compete on that front? Is it as simple as allowing more pictures on your profile and some status updates? Or would it be very difficult or foolish for them to try to be a social app?
I would say Monzo’s goal is primarily set on becoming a one stop shop for banking and a tool to help you save money, the social aspect will probably remain on the forum as it allows people who want to chat to use it and then the people who just want to manage their money can stick to the app.
It depends what you mean by “social”! We already let you send custom messages to each other via P2P and you can reply with emojis to P2Ps - that is social in a way
I don’t thing status updates would really have a place in the app though…
There’s certainly an end of the scale whereby people repeatedly send 1p back and forth and have conversations in the reference notes.
But, there’s also examples of where people use the transaction notes to write what are essentially detailed journal entries, and I wouldn’t say that makes us a journalling or lifelogging app or company.
Money is emotive, it’s social, it is essentially lifelogging for many, and I think these are things that more utilitarian financial services or apps have failed to understand or address.
I don’t personally think that makes us a social media company but I see the argument.
It’s as @simonb described above. Using the reference section of payments. My friend had a very interesting look from the mortgage company when he handed his statements over.
If a social media company could come about and be Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp all in one and have the same transparency and morals of Monzo that would be awesome.
But a bank app with all those features? No thanks…
