Zerodha CEO Seeks Advice On Instagram As Shares Drop, Internet Reacts

Zerodha co-founder and CEO Nithin Kamath on Friday revealed that his company's share of demat accounts was shrinking, even though assets under management (AUM) continued to grow. In a post on Instagram, he reached out to founders and marketing professionals for advice in a rapidly changing market.

Mr Kamath posed a question: "Can brands still rely on the same tactics and strategies that worked in the past, or do changing times demand new strategies?" He then revealed that wealthier clients were sticking with them, but new ones weren't arriving.

He stated, "Most likely, the newer and younger generation from Tier 2 and 3 towns are probably investing elsewhere."

The 45-year-old also pointed out the challenge his company was dealing with. People usually stick to one platform and don't change it easily, he said.

Mr Kamath said Zerodha has some limitations, such as a lack of spending on advertisements or offering rewards for opening accounts. He further mentioned that the stock market fluctuations also made it tough for companies like Zerodha.

He asked, "So, how do you grow when you can't play the traditional acquisition game?" 

Mr Kamath said the obvious way to attract more users might be by creating helpful content. The challenge, though, is that it's hard to know if that content is bringing new users.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Nithin Kamath (@nithinkamath)

The post went viral in no time, with people flooding the comment section with suggestions.

One person commented, "Hi Nithin, as a trader, people find better platforms like fyers (because of the ability to pledge and unpledge at 0 cost. Also because these platforms allow direct trading from charts). Investing wise your platform is better...maybe look at trading side to increase influx of traders."

Another wrote, "Beginner friendly UX. I use zerodha for stocks and groww for mfs, if I were to start my stock jounrney now would choose Groww. Zerodha ux can be overwhelming for beginners who just want to buy and sell after looking at some cool charts and well presented stats, so maybe a beginner friendly mode with a toggle to switch basis what the user wants."

"The quality of your platform i.e. charting view has dropped in quality by a big margin. You need a ui/ux revamp," wrote the next.

Earlier in March, Mr Kamath raised concerns over the drop in the number of traders and trading volume as the Indian stock market continued its downward trend.

"This drying up of volumes shows how shallow the Indian markets still are. The activity is more or less among those 1-2 crore Indians. By the way, if this continues, the government will not make even Rs 40000 cr from STT in FY 25/26, at least 50% below the Rs 80,000 cr estimate," he said.