The Value of Familiarity and Trust

400,000 locations

Guess which business has approximately 400,000 locations that you can interact with.

Some of the businesses and brands that might come to mind are McDonald’s, 7-11, Subway, or Starbucks.

One that you probably didn’t guess, that doesn’t appear on the list of most physical locations is…

Western Union.

“As of December 31, 2022, approximately 400,000 of our agent locations had conducted money transfer activity in the previous 12 months.” (https://s21.q4cdn.com/100551446/files/doc_financials/2022/ar/western-union-2022-annual-report-and-2023-proxy-statement.pdf)

For reference, 7-11 the business with most franchises has just over 60k locations. (https://www.titlemax.com/discovery-center/lifestyle/which-businesses-have-the-most-physical-locations-around-the-world/)

Whether you were handed a Western Union pamphlet when you immigrated or have lived in the same place your whole life, I’m sure that you’ve seen the iconic yellow logo. The familiarity that this business plays for the unbanked population and for immigrants who need to send money overseas without very many trusted alternatives is unquestionable. But what makes this such a unique business is how recognizable and familiar this brand is globally. Perhaps it is my ignorance, but I can’t think of another business that serves this particular group of people at this scale. With over 150M customers Western Union is in a category of its own as a business that integrates with hundreds of thousands of local businesses.

Yes, PayPal has 435M active users and is a much larger business, but the group of people that use PayPal is different than the group of people that use Western Union.

Large businesses that cater to underserved markets are unique as the conventional wisdom leads businesses to find the highest paying and most valuable clients to the business. They capture opportunity in areas that other businesses have overlooked.

The business of cash transfers is declining as the world becomes more digital and we entrust more of our financial lives to the digital realm. But trust is hard to build, and familiarity with a usage pattern may be the greatest advantage when it comes to dealing with money. I think Western Union has an opportunity to iterate and improve the financial lives of hundreds of millions of people who could use modern financial tools most. They have the familiarity in brand, and the trust over decades, but do they have the innovation?

Are there areas that you overlook in your life that might be worth revisiting to find opportunity?