According to Business Insider the 3 fintech segments that grew the most in 2016 included: cloud core processing solutions, artificial intelligence, and product personalization solutions.
The article describes the key reasons behind their success to be “the evolving technology in each of these segments” and consumer willingness to interact with these products. I think these reasons provide good insight into why certain fintech sectors experience so much growth. However, I think as technology becomes more complex and capable we need to keep consumer preferences in focus. If consumers go against a technology, the business will diminish quickly.
Over the past year we have seen the cloud expand quickly, and through many parts of our life. New technology has allowed most businesses to run through cloud servers, allowing different platforms to be more cost efficient. However, I think as this technology gets more appealing businesses need to be wary of the safety of their data. We have seen cloud databases be hackers new challenge of choice. This makes both enterprise and consumer customers nervous to keep important information on cloud databases. If cloud companies can not figure out how to keep their information safe, this sector growth could decline.
As business insider said artificial intelligence has grown over the past year. New technology in this sector has been very prevalent particularly in the consumer goods sector with the release of products like the Amazon Echo. However, I think this fintech sector also needs to be wary of consumer opinions changing about AI. Privacy has become a big worry of people using AI machines, especially those in your home that can record everything you say. Companies who issue AI machines will need to ensure customers this data will not be used against them for growth to continue.
The final fintech sector that has grown because of new technology is product personalization solutions. Much like AI technology consumers enjoy have machines help them on a day to day basis. However, these machines are constantly collecting data about all its users. If consumers become uncomfortable with this fact, then this sector will see growth decline.
Overall I believe these fintech sectors can continue to flourish if they keep balancing consumer privacy and safety with advances in new technology.
http://www.businessinsider.com/these-are-the-fintech-segments-most-likely-to-grow-in-2017-2017-3
This is an interesting article. Consumers are definitely skeptical of new technologies. While having an innovative technology is important, creating consumer acceptance is critical to the business’s success.