Apple, Amazon, Google Mutual Funds On Anvil? Soon, Tech Giants May Enter Investment Management

After Alibaba’s disruptive foray into the investment management, tech giants Apple, Amazon, Google may soon enter the space, say experts. Alibaba’s Ant Financial Group is already the largest money market fund in the world. As investing becomes more tech driven, Amazon, Apple and Alphabet could bring their expertise to an industry plagued by distribution challenges, Dave Nadig from ETF.com told CNBC earlier this month. According to Ric Edelman, founder of Edelman Financial Engines, it’s “inevitable” that one of these tech giants will enter the space in the next five years.”There’s too much money there. And as soon as one of them does, they all do,” Edelman told the channel in a recent interview.

According to Tom Lydon, editor-in-chief of ETFTrends.com, the tech firms could look at acquiring other firms already present in the fund management space, instead of launching their own fund. “It will probably be in the form of an acquisition,” Lydon told CNBC in an interview aired on Monday.

According to Edelman, the fact that these firms work outside of the financial services industry, can work to their advantage, as the brand recall and reputation they already enjoy could help tech companies convince consumers to trust them with financial products.

“Everybody hates the financial services industry. We hate insurance companies, credit card companies, banks and brokerage firms,” he explained, adding that consumers are increasingly hating Facebook, posing a reputation challenge to the firm, and preventing Mark Zukerberg from going ahead and acquiring a bank. However, Google would not have that challenge, and so there is a huge opportunity, especially with the younger generation, he said, adding, “I wouldn’t at all be surprised to see them one day enter the space.” – Financial Express