Citi Launches Bundle “Mini”
15 Feb 2010
URL: http://www.bundle.com
In the Press: NetBanker, and American Banker
As a banker I can’t help but ask “how is Citi going to monitize this”? So you can read the rest knowing I’m an “old school” skeptic. Sure it offers some cute tools, but others in the market already do this for free (see www. mint.com). It does have a cool iPhone App called Vice Tracker (iTunes link) … perhaps Citi will start a “gaming business”.
But seriously… Citi’s growth opportunities are in international retail, I can’t imagine Vikrum trying to defend this US only investment. Let me take a shot at writing Vikrum’s analyst response
Vikrum: Citi has always been known as a technology leader for the last 100 years, we are focused in delivering value to consumers and helping people better budget their spending is crucial in these challenging times.
Analyst: So why isn’t this under Citi’s Brand?
Vikrum: … well the business heads don’t want to pay for it but we will certainly recommend Citi products to any consumer that uses this free service
Analyst: Did you know that Mint already provides this service free to consumers? How do you compete w/ Free?
Vikrum: Mint will not recommend Citi Products, bundle will…
Analyst:.. err Ok.. yeah customers will love that
Analyst: I hear that Bundles next version will be able to aggreagate your spending details across multiple FSIs, who will bear the risk of maintaining all of this confidential consumer information
Vikrum: Bundle is a seperate company…
Analyst: Got it
Looks like the beta doesn’t have the budgeting tools ready yet. Also curious that the beta does not work with either firefox or google chrome.. wonder if this was a condition for Microsoft’s investment.. 
Interesting Thomas, any idea what Citi put into this? Would your opinion change if it were entirely (or primarily) funded by Microsoft? I can see a number of reasons why they’d fund this effort.
Jim Bruene
February 16, 2010 at 5:24 pm