One of
the newest trends happening online is Peer-to-Peer services. This business
model of connecting people to people to provide a service is growing more every
day. Some examples of peer-to-peer businesses are Airbnb (lodging),
Kickstarter (project funding), and TaskRabbit (to-do lists). These companies
are growing because they provide services at a personal level. The business
model of dealing with large, impersonal companies is no longer your only
option. Whether you're choosing a place to vacation, fund your start-up, or
borrow money.
Five
years ago the peer-to-peer way to borrow money online was started by Internet
Company "Lending Club". Lending Club offered an alternative to
large commercial banks that scaled back their lending during the financial
crisis. They offer to be the middle man between borrowers who couldn't borrow
and lenders who were looking to get a higher return on their cash. Lending Club
provided the structures to make this happen and they have
been successful ever since.
The
Internet has made it possible for peer-to-peer businesses to offer their services
around the world. UK peer to peer lending company
Folk2Folk has a different twist on peer-to-peer lending. They are looking
for individuals who are able to lend £25,000 or more. They offer
secured loans on non-residential property to individuals and
businesses. Folk2Folk does the banks one better by processing a secured
loan in seven to ten days. This tops the time that regular banking takes, which is usually is months, to fund a loan.
We are
seeing the future with the growth of Peer-to-peer services. Even Internet giant
Google sees the potential of this type of lending. Recently, Google invested $125M in Lending Club in the U.S. while in the
U.K. Zopa announced that they are putting in new safeguards to protect
lenders funds and Funding Circle starting to do secured loans. With Google's
investment, we are seeing peer-to-peer lending services becoming
mainstream.
No comments:
Post a Comment