| By Jim Bruene on February 12, 2008 5:45 PM | Comments (4) |
We were surprised to learn today that someone beat Community Lend to market, becoming Canada's first person-to-person lending exchange (previous coverage here). The Montreal-based startup, IOU Central, says they've been working on the company for a year.
The company merged with an established Danish person-to-person lender FairRates <fairrates.dk>, whose co-founders, Robert Bialek and Arkadiusz Hajduk, are now on the IOU Central team.
Much like its U.S. counterparts, Prosper and LendingClub, IOU Central facilitates installment loans of up to $25,000 CDN, with terms of up to 3 years.
The company's homepage includes a YouTube video of its President, Phil Marleau, giving an 80-second overview of the company. Even more important, they have a testimonial from a former TD Bank EVP to the right of the video (see screenshot below).
The company issued a news release today (here) that was picked up by several blogs (here and here). For more info on the market for P2P loan, and what financial institutions should do about it, see our recent Online Banking Report (here).
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Thanks Jim, I didn't actually know about these guys.
"I Owe You" is the type of name that I'd suspect jives with a stereotypical definition of P2P users: younger, hipper, smarter, savvy, sophisticated, etc.
IOU is clever, but "I Owe You" doesn't sound like a smart businessman's proposition ("Hey, is it okay if I owe you?") Certainly not the kind of thing that would interest Mr. Successful investor who's looking to "diversify his portfolio."
Presuming P2P appeals to a younger audience, and the name has youthful appeal, one has to ask: What's with the "old people" all over IOU's site? There's Ms. Borrower who's at least 30 (okay, 33). Mr. Success is 40-something. Mr. Endorsement is 40-something (but the photo is...how old?) The youngest guy on the page is the founder and he's 30+ and comes off pretty flat in his video.
The site's marketing also seems to exploit sexist clichés: man/successful/money, woman/needy/dreamer.
Switch the photos and we're gender bending stereotypes: She has money, he is the aspiring designer. Much more interesting (still possibly the wrong demographics, but better).
Jeffry,
while p2p lending does appeal to a younger audience when coming to borrowers,
e.g. the typical Smava borrower is aged 20 to 40 and male:
http://www.wiseclerk.com/smava/geld-a-kreditprojekte_alter-l-kreditprojekte_alter-m-kredite.html
the lender audience is much older. Especially lenders lending larger amount tend to be older.
E.g. on Smava 7 of the Top 10 lender are over 40 years old (5 are over 50).
http://www.wiseclerk.com/smava/geld-a-anleger_invest-l-anleger_invest-m-kredite.html
Claus, thanks for weighing in with demographic data. I often hear people say that P2P is very "Gen Y," but still wonder who the actual borrowers and lenders really are.
My points attack "demographic stereotypes" where they intersect with the "IOU brand."
The first stereotype has to do with age. Realities of the P2P market aside, there seems to be a brand misalignment for IOU. Who is the company targeting? The name is casual and semi-hip (suggesting younger), the image is corporate and conservative (suggesting older).
The second stereotype is gender. Everyone I've heard from picked up the sexist subtext.