With the influx of new challenger companies in the international payments space, online presence has become increasingly important. Some new challengers, including mobile-first companies such as M-Pesa and bitcoin transfer providers are focusing almost exclusively on building brand awareness and expanding through online channels. Industry stalwarts such as Western Union and MoneyGram meanwhile are dedicating resources to developing new digital offerings to compete with such startups and remain in front of the market.
We recently charted company age versus average search volume to create an approximate market map of each company's online presence.
The SearchPower Index is a ratio of companies' relative strength - the higher the number the greater the impact since they launched.
While Western Union and MoneyGram have both long histories and massive online presences, new challengers such as TransferWise and Skrill have managed to capture large online audiences over a relatively short period and come top of our SearchPower Index.
Volatility Ahead?
As the U.S. election results are announced, currency markets will likely experience some swings - no matter the outcome of the presidential race.
In order to visualize just how much volatility (and web traffic!) a political upset can cause, we matched up searches for GBP transfers on FXcompared.com with the Pound's volatility in the days before and after the Brexit vote.
Notably, volatility surged as the result of the Brexit vote began to become clear, while searches for GBP-based money transfers on FXcompared also reached record highs.
*GBP volatility has been calculated using an ARCH model.
The Latest in International Payments: Our favorite news and articles
Pay What You Want? Startup transfer firm Xendpay is hoping to break into business transfers using a voluntary fee structure for business that transfer over 4,000 GBP per year. Finextra.
Crypto Controls. Chinese regulators are said to be investigating ways to limit the use of bitcoin, including restricting domestic exchanges. ZeroHedge.
Digital Bank Heists. Tesco has suspended parts of its online banking activity - including some transactions - as it appears roughly 20,000 customer accounts have had money taken from them. BBC.
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