Degiro to launch ad-powered stock trading
The service, called Deziro, is likely to expand to as many as 20 countries next year
Online brokerage firm Degiro is taking a page from tech companies such as Google and Facebook with plans use ads to offset costs for consumers.
Founded in 2008, Amsterdambased Degiro has grown rapidly in Europe — expanding to more than a dozen countries, including the United Kingdom in June — by slashing fees by as much as 80% below the competition.
Now, Degiro aims to slash prices even lower — to zero — with a new ad-powered trading service it is calling Deziro, the company said.
The trading service is expected to launch in as many as 20 countries starting next year, including the U.S., depending on demand, a spokesman told USA TODAY.
The brokerage firm will be assessing worldwide demand for its ad-powered trading platform through a waiting list, available through its website, www.deziro .com, the company said.
Silicon Valley is famous for using ads to pay for consumer services, like Facebook and Google’s search engine. But it’s not a practice common to Wall Street, which relies on commissions and other fees paid for directly by investors.
If successful in the U.S., Deziro will be competing with Robinhood, a mobile app that also promises free trading. Robinhood, which is backed by Silicon Valley venture capital firms such as Google Ventures and Andreessen Horowitz, is not powered by ads, however. It makes money through other traditional brokerage fees, such as interest on customers’ cash balances and their margin accounts.
“We are proud to have cut trading fees by 80 percent across Europe with Degiro. But this is not enough,” Gijs Nagel, co-founder of Degiro, said in a statement. “We want to liberate the rest of the world from unfair fees.”