Mint sells to Intuit
Mint made out well in the 170M aquisition by Intuit. Intuit gets a great company and a great product.
Intuit PR insists that Quicken Online isn't doomed - and that they are going after a younger market segment than Mint. This I find to be complete BS. Quicken is much more recognized by older users. The only reason that PR/marketing is saying it's for a younger user is b/c it doesn't have the additional functionality and features that mint has (like tracking investments.) I'll call your BS Intuit PR. You tried to market your Quicken online to your standard users (probably 40+) but found that those people were weary of online Quicken. Those willing were already eaten up by all the other online personal finances places - and really your dataset is younger than standard Quicken users - not younger than standard Mint users. B/C you have less functionality than Mint - you're trying to market it to a younger set than mint. I think that's failing.
If the Quicken Online product was rocking it out and taking up major market share, and actually had a way to bring in revenue, Intuit wouldn't have bought Mint. Sorry Quicken Online employees - I would start looking for a transfer or find a new biz to be in. Don't freak out Quicken Online users - they'll figure out a way to roll you into Mint.
There's no way that all the product managers at Intuit and Mint are going to allow both products to exists indefinitely. Quicken Online is just a baby version of Mint. Why maintain two products when one will do? The only reason would be laziness and wantonly wasting of Intuit cash.
My opinion - in the next 12-18 months they will start by providing "levels" of mint depending on what you need. Essentially allowing users to disable tabs they don't need. Quicken online is essentially just the transactions and trends tabs of Mint. Why not just allow mint users to turn off tabs that don't apply to them? Then roll the Quicken Online users into Mint - and phase out Quicken Online.
So all in all - it's a good day for Mint and Intuit. I hope both companies are cracking open a bottle of champagne today. Actually, I hope everyone at Mint went out and got really freaking drunk last night in celebration and all take the day off to recover today.
Intuit PR insists that Quicken Online isn't doomed - and that they are going after a younger market segment than Mint. This I find to be complete BS. Quicken is much more recognized by older users. The only reason that PR/marketing is saying it's for a younger user is b/c it doesn't have the additional functionality and features that mint has (like tracking investments.) I'll call your BS Intuit PR. You tried to market your Quicken online to your standard users (probably 40+) but found that those people were weary of online Quicken. Those willing were already eaten up by all the other online personal finances places - and really your dataset is younger than standard Quicken users - not younger than standard Mint users. B/C you have less functionality than Mint - you're trying to market it to a younger set than mint. I think that's failing.
If the Quicken Online product was rocking it out and taking up major market share, and actually had a way to bring in revenue, Intuit wouldn't have bought Mint. Sorry Quicken Online employees - I would start looking for a transfer or find a new biz to be in. Don't freak out Quicken Online users - they'll figure out a way to roll you into Mint.
There's no way that all the product managers at Intuit and Mint are going to allow both products to exists indefinitely. Quicken Online is just a baby version of Mint. Why maintain two products when one will do? The only reason would be laziness and wantonly wasting of Intuit cash.
My opinion - in the next 12-18 months they will start by providing "levels" of mint depending on what you need. Essentially allowing users to disable tabs they don't need. Quicken online is essentially just the transactions and trends tabs of Mint. Why not just allow mint users to turn off tabs that don't apply to them? Then roll the Quicken Online users into Mint - and phase out Quicken Online.
So all in all - it's a good day for Mint and Intuit. I hope both companies are cracking open a bottle of champagne today. Actually, I hope everyone at Mint went out and got really freaking drunk last night in celebration and all take the day off to recover today.
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