What we think about Jio-BlackRock's entry into broking

Many people asked me about Jio-BlackRock getting a stockbroking license. Firstly, this is great news. The biggest issue for the Indian markets is a lack of breadth in participation. We're largely limited to the top 10 crore Indians.

If anyone can expand the markets beyond the top 10 crore Indians, it's probably Jio with all its distribution might. As for how many new Indian investors have the money to invest in the market, I don't know.

How do we think about broking?

We are not chasing vanity metrics. The idea is to stay profitable and, more importantly, ensure that we stick to the principles and philosophies that have gotten us this far. At the heart of our philosophy is to always do the right thing for customers.

This means not pushing customers to trade and ensuring there are no unnecessary notifications, dark patterns, etc.

We understand that in the long term, the odds of success are better if customers trade less; most of our product decisions are based on this.

We're not interested in acquiring customers using one plan and changing the pricing later.

And more...

So yeah, we are in no hurry. We are in it for the long haul and are always working to ensure we have the best product offerings that help our customers grow with us. I don't know if you can say the same about many other financial services businesses in the industry, who are constantly looking to grow at any cost.

And yeah, I still feel our real competition is going to be more from first-generation founders who are running, breathing, and always thinking about broking. I somehow don't feel it is really going to be from incumbents. This is not a business where having deep pockets means you have a large moat.

But yeah, I might be wrong. 😬