Emerging countries looking to upgrade their network infrastructure have become good starting points for expanding Big Tech’s network provider aspirations.

Aspiration positions itself as the anti-bank. It will have 3.0 million account holders by the end of 2021, or 1.1% of the US adult population. By 2025, we expect Aspiration to more than double its total customers to 6.4 million (2.4% of US adult consumers).

The top four US neobanks by user count—Aspiration, Chime, Current, and Varo—will nearly double their users from 17.7 million this year to 34.0 million in 2025, per our forecast; these figures are approximate, given the likely overlap between account holders. While this growth is impressive, it’s not translating into profits.

Banks are progressively competing with each other for the same search terms across the same channels, making it more difficult to achieve conversion, said Ivan Wicksteed, chief growth and revenue officer at environment- and ethics-focused financial firm Aspiration.

Current is set to surpass Aspiration to become No. 2

Without automotive manufacturing experience, Apple will have a difficult time with its EV and AV aspirations. Not only is it playing catch-up in EV and AV technologies, Apple doesn’t seem to have a battery production and vehicle-charging ecosystem planned, which are key components to Tesla’s success.

The whole Windows Phone fiasco should have been enough to distance Microsoft from its mobile aspirations, but the temptation was too strong. Microsoft’s Surface Duo 2, the successor to its poorly received dual-screen Android-powered device, remains an oddity in the smartphone market.

Erhart cautioned banks against “lowering the bar” on their digital aspirations—it could prevent them from finding that best-in-class vendor willing to spend time educating the bank, as Spiekerman described. Banks also need to shift from seeing tech as a cost center.

Aspiration pitches an optional monthly fee as a form of altruism. The base monthly fee is $0, like for the other neobanks in this study, but Aspiration pitches the fee as a way to support the neobank and its mission—with proceeds going to support causes of the customer’s choice. Chime enables fee-free early cash access after customers set up direct deposit.

It’s not enough for CMOs to capture and aggregate customer opinions, ideas, and aspirations. Great CMOs become champions for their customers inside the organization, seeking to influence policy decisions, back-end processes, and even financial decisions.

“You need to have a shift from sacrifice to aspiration,” said Dr. Orit Gal, senior lecturer for strategy and complexity at Regent’s University London, taking part in an xChange virtual panel on sustainability in February 2021.

The question is to what extent the US can ever approximate China’s social commerce evolution—an aspiration that may prove easier imagined than accomplished. We believe that social commerce will be a key source of ecommerce growth in the US, and that China offers a road map for innovation.

While long-term forecasts amid the crisis may seem like wish-casting, marketers should take note of current consumer feelings and aspirations to identify what behaviors might stick as “the new normal.”. Read More:. Toy and Hobby Advertisers Are a Pandemic Bright Spot. US Personal Savings Rate Increases Due to Lowered Spending amid Social Distancing.

The question is to what extent the US can ever approximate to China’s social commerce evolution—an aspiration that may prove easier imagined than accomplished. We believe that social commerce will be a key source of ecommerce growth in the US, and that China offers a road map for innovation.