Having a chat

Chewing the fat, shooting the breeze, having a natter - call it what you like, talking to people is darn important and everyone should do it as often as they can (except in libraries). We talk to our members as much as possible, through our blog and discussion board and by getting people to email contactus@zopa.com if anything's on their mind.

Feb 07 2006

New kid on the block

Posted by Dave at 2:07 pm

You might have noticed that Zopa is no longer standing cold and alone in the online P2P finance space! As of yesterday we’re joined (albeit on the West Coast of the US) by Prosper.com. As the “elder sibling” we welcome them with relatively open arms* and look forward to joining them in the San Francisco fog very soon.

We’d love to hear your thoughts on Prosper and how you think they compare to Zopa. Our view is that both companies have strengths and weaknesses, and as they have surely learnt from our experience we will in turn learn from them.

Hopefully, being the first in the market, and having an established business will mean that we soundly beat them, but I guess time will tell! In the mean time - place your bets!

UPDATE: Just to clear up any confusion - Zopa is in no way connected to Prosper and we intend to compete with them head on. Oh yes.

*~~Snark - At least we would if they unblocked our IP address from accessing their site…in the mean time we’re resorting to a web proxy!~~ Yay - they unblocked us - thanks Andrew

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 7th, 2006 at 2:07 pm and is filed under New stuff, Design. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

12 comments

SJ

Posted on February 9th, 2006 at 9:52 am

Hello Chaps

A first glance, the prosper market looks much more transparent than zopa, you can see exactly who is lending to whom, at what rates and see much greater detail about the borrowers. Perhaps it is riskier to lend as there is less spread of risk across multiple borrowers, but then the lenders can manage this themselves.

The community aspect of prosper is very powerful as people aren’t just people, they belong to communities and groups and propser recognises this.

But then zopa is much more colourful

Best.

Pete

Posted on February 9th, 2006 at 11:14 am

re Prosper - ‘Groups’ seem like a great idea. Could it work over here (neighbourhood loans) I don’t know - but it is an interesting concept.

Personal Finance Advice

Posted on February 9th, 2006 at 12:58 pm

Thanks for the comment at my blog and I’m looking forward to when Zopa makes its debut in the US. As I posted, the current system at Prosper.com poses a lot of risks to those lending money at the moment due to a lack of people seeking loans. There is no way to spread the risk across a number of people on your own. It should be quite interesting to see how they develop in the coming months as well as when zopa, too, enters the field

frankyj

Posted on February 9th, 2006 at 10:37 pm

When are you guys coming to the US? I like your business model more due to the passive nature of it, vs. prosper where it’s more manual (although they do have a “standing order” feature). This looks like it will be a really interesting marketplace development.

Chad

Posted on February 11th, 2006 at 5:32 am

Dave,

Thanks for your comment on my site. I enjoy seeing competition and I enjoyed the focused point of your post on my blog. Based on your excitement to keep Prosper at bay, I wish you the best. Press on! I enjoy the simplicity of your site and look forward to watching the race.

Dave

Posted on February 14th, 2006 at 12:08 pm

Thanks everyone! It’s good to know that when we launch in the US we’re going to have some support out there! I think the differences between us and Zopa distill down to 2 main areas - the group functionality of Prosper, and the different ways in which we match up lenders and borrowers.

I don’t have much doubt that if the Prosper Group leaders can successfully recruit good quality borrowers, then it will be a powerful viral driver of their business. However, it’s interesting to note that at the moment, non group borrowers significantly outnumber group borrowers on their site - and the percentage of loans being funded is pretty low. What’s more - if it does work, I believe it’s a relatively simple proposition to replicate for Zopa.

The way in which lenders and borrowers are matched is, I believe, significantly more sophisticated at Zopa than at Prosper. At Zopa, borrowers instantly know that they can get their loan (or not) and also know that they are getting the best possible rate - which is better for them. For lenders, it is reassuring to know that, without doing any additional work, their money will be split up over many many borrowers - managing their risk.

I think that for Prosper to move in this direction is far harder than it is for Zopa to move towards Prosper’s model.

Audun

Posted on February 23rd, 2006 at 6:59 am

Hey

Interesting reading! I visited www.prosper.com and there I read that the Prosper marketplace was patented (patent pending)….

Joseph D. Hugh

Posted on March 6th, 2006 at 4:50 am

We have been in operation for almost a year now in South Korea.
Our lending maximum is 66% per annum. It’s a great market with lots of borrowers of small money, plus we have credit evaluation system from a respectable credit bureau in Korea which lets lenders see the credit of the borrowers.

We have patent pending and is the only e-marketplace for borrowers and lenders.

Feel free to contact me for investments or exchange of ideas!

jo@willco.co.kr

Our site: www.donjoy.net

Bobby Wilson

Posted on March 20th, 2006 at 4:58 pm

It says patent pending, but I do not see a filing date nor anything publish at the patent office? weirdos!

Thomas

Posted on May 12th, 2006 at 11:16 am

Hi,

I’m really interested in the Zopa’s business concept, that I find really ingenious, and I’m interested in the patent question. Like said one post earlier, Prosper is patent pending,. So how can Zopa go to America if the concept is already patented ? The question is actually, what is patented on Prosper or Donjoy: the general concept, or just the website functionalities ? And did Zopa deposit any patent too ?

I look forward to here about you.

Tom

Dave

Posted on May 15th, 2006 at 6:22 pm

:-) Looks like lots of patents….

We’ve applied for patents in the UK for the Zopa marketplace matching system - which is very different to Prosper’s (I don’t know about Donjoy). I don’t think anyone can patent the concept of ‘P2P lending’, and as all the companies seems to be going about it in different ways, I think we’ll all be OK!

Heidi

Posted on November 7th, 2007 at 11:49 pm

As a current Prosper member I have to ask…when will Zopa be available in the US??? Although Prosper is easy to use and one can select whom they lend to and create groups…they do NOT pay interest on funds sitting in your account and ACAT transfers take 3-5 days! This is a lot of “lost” interest and makes it difficult to maximize return. I like that Zopa pays interest on funds in your account and I will switch as soon as I can!

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