What are the key 'FinTech Topics' and how do they trend across time? by Dr. David Krause AIM Program Director, Marquette University
A previous article about global “FinTechTrends” and an example of the use of R code using Google Trends was published by Dr. David Krause, AIM Program Director, Marquette University.
This article
focuses on the key topic trends within FinTech. This research utilizing Google Trends and R code initially was done in 2018 to create the
curriculum utilized in Krause’s FINA 4931: Topic in FinTech course that is being taught
in the spring 2019 semester at Marquette University. The original research has been updated and is current as of 1/21/2019.
As displayed above, FinTech has taken the financial services
industry by storm. According to a Google Trends analysis I recently undertook (shown above) as of 1/21/2019 - the current interest in FinTech continues to grow
exponentially – not only in the United States, but globally.
What are the key FinTech Topics and how do they trend across time? The following charts display Interest over time (a Google metric based on search interest – which the reader can think of as an improved version of Google ‘hits’) for various key topics.
The overall current market environment is evaluated for five key FinTech topics (Artificial Intelligent (AI), big data, blockchain, cloud computing and cybersecurity).
The charts above show the overall relative interest over time of Google trend searches for the five
FinTech topics for the world since 2004. The recent explosion of interest in
blockchain stands out; however, big data and AI are also displaying upward trends in
global interest. The 5-year trends are also shown, and the results are similar
to those observed of the entire period with recent interest in blockchain standing out.
The charts above show the overall relative
interest over time Google trends for the five FinTech topics within the United
States since 2004. The trends are nearly identical to the global FinTech topics
trend results (shown above). The
5-year trends are also shown, and the results are similar to those observed of
the entire period with blockchain interest showing the strong relative level of recent interest.
The results
for the most recent 5-year Google Trends period for China are above – and are more challenging to analyze.
The conclusion is similar, since the geometric smoothing shows that the
relative interest in blockchain since early in 2018 was strong; however in 2019 it appears that the relative the level of interest
is similar for all FinTech topics examined.
The chart above shows the overall relative interest over time Google trends for the blockchain FinTech topic search within the United States since 2014. The trend indicated very strong relative interest in early 2018 - near the time that bitcoin traded at its highest level.
(Blockchain technology continues to evolve with issues remaining concerning
performance and privacy issues. While the potential is great within the
financial services sector, the business model is not yet ready for large-scale
consumer use. Blockchain is the digital currency represented by bitcoin; while
the second generation of blockchain involves the smart contract platform – with
the future likely to lead to advances in cryptography, consensus algorithms, performance
optimization, and so on).
The chart above displays Google Trends interest over time since 2014 in the US for the search term: artificial intelligence or AI. The trend across time has nearly doubled since 2014 and continues to grow.
(Artificial Intelligence (AI) has begun to impact the wealth management and banking industry. Artificial intelligence applications include robo-advising, anti-fraud detection and credit evaluation - and utilizes tools such as big data analytics and facial and speech recognition. AI applications such as biometrics in mobile phones can assist with customer verification and improve transparency and service to the end-customers in investment and banking applications).
Cybersecurity as a Google search topic has also shown strong growth in interest over time. Since 2014, the relative interest in cybersecurity has more than doubled.
(Cybersecurity, which
is also referred to as computer or information technology security (IT) security
– it involves the protection of computer systems from theft or damage to the
hardware and software. It importantly also contains the protection of internal
and external digital data. The term also applies to the intentional disruption
or misdirection of the services they provide. The field is growing in
importance in the financial services industry due to increasing reliance on
computer systems, the Internet, and mobile devices that are connected to
wireless networks (including mobile phones, tablets and Internet of Things
devices) connected via Bluetooth and Wi-Fi).
The interest over time of the Google search phrase: big data has actually decreased on a relative basis since 2014.
(Big data in financial services is quite widespread. Insurance
companies, banks and wealth management firms have a major demand for the
sharing and application of the internal and external data. Data mining and knowledge
transfer plays a large role in analyzing trends and meeting customer needs).
Google search interest over time for cloud computing has shown a decline across the past five years, although not as pronounced as the decline in the search phrase for big data.
(Cloud Computing
involves the use of the internet to access applications, data, or services that
are stored or run on a remote server. Within financial services, cloud
computing has been an important advancement because of the large amounts of
data utilized within the industry).
The purpose of this research was to answer the question: What are the key
FinTech Topics and how do they trend across time? The charts displayed Interest
over time (a Google metric based on search interest – which the reader can think
of as an improved version of Google ‘hits’) for various key topics.
Summary: The overall current market environment was evaluated for five key
FinTech topics (Artificial Intelligent (AI), big data, blockchain, cloud
computing and cybersecurity). The results showed the overall relative interest
over time Google trends for the five FinTech topics for the world since 2004 and over the past five years. The
recent explosion of interest in blockchain stands out; however, big data and AI
also displayed upward trends in global interest. The 5-year trends were also shown,
and the results were similar to those observed of the entire period - the US and global trends were similar.
PS If you are interested in the R code utilized to produce this report, please reach out to Dr. David Krause.
