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EasyEquities still the online share trading king – but facing increased competition

EasyEquities

EasyEquities is the most popular online share trading platform among South African retail investors, but it faces increased competition from other players.

This was one of the findings in Daily Investor’s 2023 South African Investor Report, based on responses from 1,443 retail and institutional investors.

The survey was conducted in July 2023, and most respondents were high-income earners who actively invested.

From the 2000s, online share trading steadily gained traction in South Africa, with big banks like Standard Bank, FNB, and Absa offering trading platforms to their clients.

In the early days, online share trading was associated with well-to-do South Africans with a lot of disposable income.

This changed after EasyEquities entered the scene. It made share trading easy and gave ordinary South Africans access to the financial markets.

EasyEquities was created in 2014 and is a product of First World Trader, which forms part of JSE-listed Purple Group.

Its biggest selling point is its patented fractional share rights (FSR) model, which allows investors to buy and sell small portions of equities traded on stock exchanges.

The platform was a huge hit among investors and more than tripled the size of South Africa’s retail investor base.

Aside from its easy-to-use interface and FSR model, EasyEquities had another winning formula – partnering with big brands.

The company counts Capitec Bank, Discovery Bank, Sanlam, Satrix, Telkom, and Bidvest among its partners.

This helped EasyEquities rapidly grow its user base and significantly increase trading volumes in recent years.

EasyEquities is by far South Africa’s most popular online share trading platform. However, it is not as dominant as twelve months ago.

Last year, 58% of South African investors said they used EasyEquities as their primary online investing platform.

This has dropped to 44% in 2023, with other platforms gaining popularity among high-end investors.

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