EasyEquities is still king

EasyEquities is the most popular online share trading platform among South African retail investors, maintaining its lead from last year.

This was revealed in Daily Investor’s 2024 South African Investor and Banking Report, based on responses from 2,013 South African retail and institutional investors.

The survey was conducted in January 2024, and most respondents were high-income earners and high-net-worth individuals.

Online share trading steadily gained traction in South Africa in the 2000s after big banks like Standard Bank, FNB, and Absa offered 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 the JSE-listed Purple Group.

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. 44% of survey respondents said it is their preferred platform to buy and sell equities.

The platform maintained its support despite bad press around making its Thrive loyalty program mandatory and charging users under level 3 a R25 per month fee.

Purple Group CEO Charles Savage said the uproar on social media and subsequent negative press reports was a storm in a teacup. This data substantiates his view.

Standard Bank showed strong growth over the last year, increasing its support from 13% to 19% and closing the gap with EasyEquities.

FNB, Absa, and PSG Wealth completed the top 5. Numerous smaller platforms have a loyal following, but their growth is not significant in the bigger market.

The chart below shows the preferred online share trading platforms among high-income South African investors.

Online share trading platforms