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Need for improved development ecosystems among B2B Fintech companies – Fintech Schweiz Digital Finance News

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Of Fintechnews Switzerland
May 23, 2024

A new study conducted from technology marketing agency Z3x reveals that while business-to-business (B2B) fintech companies are active on social media and maintain blogs to connect with their audiences, there is room for improvement, particularly in creating an ecosystem of developers involved and in offering developer portals.

The research, which interviewed 200 business-to-business (B2B) fintech companies around the world and analyzed their websites, sought to evaluate the marketing strategies and technical details of the sector, with the aim of providing insights to specialists in the sector.

Key findings indicate that 95% of B2B fintech companies use LinkedIn, 75% Facebook and 60% X, making these three platforms the leading social networks for B2B fintech companies. Additionally, 77% of companies have blogs, of which 60% have general blogs, 36% have news blogs, and 8% have technology blogs. This reveals that most B2B fintech companies have understood the importance of maintaining a blog to support authority building, education and lead generation.

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<p>The report highlights the need for diverse content for blogs, highlighting that the relatively small percentage of companies offering technology content represents an opportunity for growth.  By showcasing technological expertise, companies can engage their users more effectively, the report says.</p>
<p>Furthermore, the report highlights opportunities for improvement in the use of channels such as TikTok and Instagram.  B2B fintech companies can stand out from the competition by leveraging these channels.  However, to effectively reach their audience and strengthen their position in the industry, they must adapt their content to each platform’s unique characteristics and target audience.</p>
<h4>Developer portals and communities</h4>
<p>The Z3x study also examines the use of developer portals and communities, including the presence of “Dev Zones”, which are dedicated spaces for developers.</p>
<p>Developer portals and communities are critical to driving product adoption, fostering innovation, and building long-term relationships with your customers.  These platforms provide essential resources, support and engagement opportunities that enable developers to effectively use fintech solutions and contribute to the ecosystem.</p>
<p>However, the research reveals that only 36% of B2B fintech companies surveyed have a separate area dedicated specifically to developers, and only 22% provide changelogs, a low percentage that could raise questions about transparency on the evolution of the product.</p>
<p>Change logs are websites that track and describe changes made to a software project or product over time, such as the version number, release date, and a summary of the changes made.  They help developers and users understand the evolution of the system and stay informed about the latest updates.</p>
<p>Additionally, only 37% of B2B fintech companies offer a public application programming interface (API) that enables communication and data exchange between different software applications.  This cautious approach may reflect a lack of trust in the developer community or a fear of revealing competitive advantages, but it can also limit product development and industry innovation.</p>
<p>Equally concerning is that only 43% of companies make their API documentation public.  At a time when interactions between applications are central to most technology solutions, keeping such documentation private can stifle innovation and collaboration, the report says.  This practice, often driven by competitive concerns, may protect some commercial interests, but at the expense of broader development opportunities.</p>
<p>Regarding community building efforts, the study shows that only 9% of fintech companies have dedicated platforms for developer communities.  The most used platforms are GitHub (67%), followed by Discord (17%), Stack Overflow (11%), Reddit and Slack (both at 6%).</p>
<h4>SDK and public code repository</h4>
<p>The report also discusses software development kits (SDKs) and public code repositories, highlighting their importance in promoting transparency, supporting community and ecosystem development, and simplifying integration.</p>
<p>SDKs are comprehensive collections of software tools, libraries, documentation, code samples, processes, and guides that developers use to build applications.  These offerings simplify integration, improve developer experience, and reduce development costs.</p>
<p>However, the study reveals that only 27% of B2B fintech companies surveyed provide SDKs.  Similarly, only 16% of companies maintain public code repositories, predominantly using GitHub.  Public repositories are online platforms that facilitate collaboration, code sharing, and community building among developers.  They provide a centralized, transparent environment to host and manage software projects, promoting open collaboration, code reusability, transparency, accountability, community building, and visibility for projects and contributors.</p>
<p>For B2B fintech companies, not providing SDKs or maintaining a public code repository can lead to integration issues, poor developer experience, reduced developer adoption, and loss of community engagement.  It can also lead to security issues, scaling difficulties, limited innovation, and competitive disadvantage.</p>
<h4>The rise of B2B fintech</h4>
<p>B2B fintech has seen considerable growth and innovation in recent years, driven by growing demand from businesses for tailored financial solutions, efficiency improvements and technological advancements.  Data from Dealroom.co <a href=reveal that there has been a notable shift in fintech activity from consumer-centric to business-oriented propositions, especially evident in 2023.

According to the data provider, B2B fintech startups received the majority of fintech funding last year, accounting for 79.8% of total investments through November 30. In contrast, business-to-consumer (B2C) startups attracted just 20.2% of fintech funding during the year. same period. This represents a notable decline from the 50.6% share held by B2C fintech startups in 2016, indicating a notable change in trend that is worth monitoring.

Nirav Choksi, CEO and co-founder of Indian digital banking platform CredAble expects the trend will continue into 2024 and beyond, driven by opportunities in payment platforms, lending solutions and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) tools.

Choksi predicts several technology trends will dominate the industry in the future, including robotic process automation (RPA), blockchain technology, open finance, generative artificial intelligence (gen AI), and banking-as-a-service (BaaS).

RPA aims to automate repetitive tasks, improving efficiency and reducing costs; gen AI is ready to play a fundamental role in personalizing financial services, optimizing investment portfolios and enabling fairer access to credit; and blockchain technology is set to improve cross-border transactions, digital identity verification, trade finance and compliance, he says.

Furthermore, BaaS will enable non-financial companies to integrate financial services into their platforms, offering a connected and convenient financial experience for businesses; and open finance will evolve from open banking to use diverse data sets for more innovative and inclusive financial solutions.

Featured image credit: Edited by freepik

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