Zerodha co-founder Nithin Kamath doesn't see the need to advertise his firm, saying it is a good place to be when you don't have to look at customers in terms of acquisition costs and lifetime value.
Among the discount brokers, Zerodha demonstrated a strong performance, reporting a 1.5% month-on-month (MoM) increase in its client count to 74 lakh.
Zerodha is among the top five discount brokers in the country that continue to outpace traditional brokers in terms of active clients on the NSE. Kamath was reflecting on a recent game of cricket match he had watched where every fourth advertisement was that of a brokerage firm.
"I often get asked, both internally and externally, why we don't advertise". Kamath said it was a good place to be and he didn't see the need to push customers to take a trade. This way "we can stay spam-free, not have to sell life insurance as an investment, and more".
Founded by Nithin and Nikhil Kamath, Zerodha is credited with revolutionising discount broking in India. “In 2020, the AUM, our customers’ total assets under management was maybe Rs 15,000 crore. I don’t think any of our peers, like brokers, looked at us very seriously. They were like ‘okay you have made some profits but what eventually matters is like what is the AUM of the business, how much do customers trust you with their assets’. It is Rs 3 and a half lakh crore,” Kamath had said in a podcast last year.
Kamath further stated, “I keep telling in the office that there is no status quo in today’s world…everyone’s gonna get disrupted, we just have to stay sharp. There is no other way to build a business.”