Is the End Near for Quicken and Microsoft Money?
Posted by Ariel Seidman | January 10, 2008
In the fall, the personal finance software space — led primarily by Mint.com (which did a superb execution job for a V1 product) and Wesabe was all the rage. Its clear that this space was due for a refresh and had grown stale as both Intuit and Microsoft starved their products for too long creating an opening for the likes of Mint and Wesabe, but its too early to write the eulogy for Quicken and Microsoft Money as Omar and others suggest.
It will be a few years before we can declare any winners in this space — but there are three questions that the likes of Mint and Wesabe need to answer in order to be considered long-term viable competitors?
First, do Mint.com and Wesabe investors have the patience that is needed to fight this out over the long-term? Building a loyal user base in this space will take time as even the early adopters will only dip their toe before committing significant financial data to these services as they want to be certain that these services are committed to privacy and security but perhaps as importantly that their built for the long haul. Nobody wants to wake up two years from now reading an email that they are shutting down and moving all of your data to ACME Financial Service Inc.
Secondly, can they expand the set of users in the personal finance market beyond the Quicken and Microsoft Money base? The personal finance software market is relatively small as the effort to reward curve is steep — your forced to spend lots of time and energy setting up Quicken or Money before you start to see its benefits which only works for a small and dedicated set of the market.
Finally, can they broaden the value proposition beyond simply providing a 360 degree view of your spending and wrapping it in a slick user interface? Sexy pie-charts are interesting for all of 3 minutes, but what will keep people engaged?� The savings trick employed by Mint is a good start, but from my short experience with it not super helpful (i.e. it’s an execution problem).
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Hey,
Yes, you’re right (speaking as one of the founders of Wesabe). Nothing in this market is decided. I do think that the companies that have come into the market have mostly taken a new approach of one kind or another to the idea of personal finance software, and that the traditional market metrics likely do not apply as a result. But, all three of the issues you raise are real — for anyone, large or small, hoping to build a business in this area.
Thanks for the comments! Of course, if you have specific requests that would make your own use of our site more satisfying, I’d love to hear about them.
Marc Hedlund, Wesabe
Comment by Marc Hedlund — January 11, 2008 #
Marc,
Given the personal nature of your finances — most people don’t like exposing how much money they don’t have, so I am very curious as to whether or not the concept of a community helping each other with their personal finances will catch-on?
As the economy turns negative you guys have an opportunity to take advantage of that — best of luck!
Thanks for your comments.
Cheers,
-ariel
Comment by Ariel Seidman — January 12, 2008 #
Marc,
Excellent insight. At mint we are of course after ways to expand the share of the entire personal finance space beyond the controller types and into the mainstream. With the savings rate in the USA being negative and people everywhere looking for ways to rein in spending and understand where it all goes, we think this is the right time to give people these answers in an easy way.
The philosophy at mint is to have people put the smallest amount of effort in, and get the largest reward out.
Our newest feature, launching this week, that allows you to compare your spending categorically against averages around the country, is the tip of the iceberg in how we are planning to offer more interesting ways to understand your money as compared to Microsoft and Intuit solutions.
And of course any suggestions/comments from you and all of our users are always appreciated.
Thanks again,
Jason M. Putorti
Lead Designer, mint.com
Comment by Jason M. Putorti — January 12, 2008 #