Electronic brokers used a value chain to deliver services to customers radically different from that of traditional brokers. They kept overhead low by having few offices and no commission-based professionals. While they had small staffs of salaried financial consultants, registered representatives, and trained customer service personnel answering phones for customers who needed to talk to a "live broker," they relied mainly on the Internet for communicating with customers. Typically, electronic brokers set up a Web site for interested investors to explore---- some parts of the Web site were free and open to everyone; other parts were accessible only to those who had an account number and password. Potential investors could open up an account by filling out a form on-line (or request that new -account information and forms be sent through the mail). The Web sites of electronic brokerages consisted of an assortment of Web page features that allowed customers to obtain unlimited delayed stock quotes, get real-time quotes if needed, place buy-sell orders, get order confirmations, check account balances, track portfolio performance, view historical chart, check mutual fund data and ratings, peruse industry and company news, and gain access to research reports from a variety of investment research specialists. Some electronic brokerages had developed their own proprietary software for utilizing the options and features on their Web sites; others obtained software from vendors and paid a royalty per trade.
Internet-savvy investors--intrigued with handling their own trades, tracking their portfolios automatically, and saving on commission fees (which in early 1996 were about $35 for a 100-share trade)---evidenced immediate interest in opened between April 1995 and April 1996. Customers could use the Internet to access their account information after hours and on weekends, and place orders for execution at the next market opening. As one satisfied electronic investor put it, "My broker was so nice, but boy, they were robbing me. All he ever did was place my trades. I can do that for myself."4 The CEO of one electronic broker said at the time, "Our mission is to empower the investor. All our information is for free."5
Overall, trading stocks on the Internet using on-line brokers was quickly becoming simple,convenient, user-friendly, private, safe, informative, and pleasant--conditions that were expected to result in rapid increases in the percentage of retail trades conducted on-line. Some analysts were projecting that electronic trading would approach 30 percent of daily trading volume by year-end 1998 and 50 percent of all retail trades within five years. Such dramatic growth was consistent with mounting activity on the Internet in general. A 1998 study by the Department of Commerce found that traffic on the Internet was doubling every 100 days; whereas in 1994 only 3 million people were connected to the Internet, by year-end 1997 an estimated 100 million people worldwide, including 62 million Americans, were connected.
The Initial Responses of Traditional Brokerages to the Emergence of Electronic Trading
Full-service and discount brokers initially responded to the growing interest in electronic trading by creating Web sites for their own customers. No electronic trading was offered, but the sites did offer tidbits of current information (daily market commentaries, recen