Revolut has reached 40 million customers worldwide, according to a LinkedIn post by an employee. A huge figure, but what exactly does it mean? We have looked into it a little over a year ago, and we have reached out to Revolut once again.
Revolut is growing at an amazing rate. There have been reports about the neobank closing in on the 40 million customer mark since December. It was around this time that Bloomberg reported Revolut adding 300,000 new users every week and rapidly approaching the milestone.
The majority of the customer base – 28 million people or 70 percent – are from the European Union. However, the financial superapp’s extensive international presence is constantly driving growth, outside the EU, too. In addition to the European Economic Area, Revolut offers its full services in Australia, Brazil, Japan, New Zealand, Singapore, Switzerland, the United States and the United Kingdom.
A limited version of the app is available to residents of Chile, North Macedonia, and Moldova, as well as 11 Asian countries. Revolut has also recently launched an initial travel-focused service in India, the world’s most populous country.
How are these 40 million customers counted?
A little over a year ago we looked into how they count customers. At the time Revolut’s customer base was half the size it is now. Back then we did not get a detailed answer, but this time we had a productive exchange with Stefan Bogucki, Senior Communications Manager for Poland and Central and Eastern Europe.
To be considered a customer, the user has to complete the full onboarding process, that is:
- they must create a user account within the app,
- complete the customer identification process, and
- accept the terms and conditions.
Previously, the number of downloads of the app was communicated as the number of customers. As the company has matured, a more stringent framework has been put in place.
Revolut does not publish the number of active customers. We have learned about their in-house methodology, however: a user must complete one of the below activities within a given time period to be considered an active customer.
Top-up Card payment P2P transfer Bank transfer Vaults transfer Charity donation ATM interaction Exchange Trade
Hungary is an important market for Revolut
Of the many countries in which Revolut is present, Hungary is one of the key markets. After all, of the less than 10 million Hungarian residents, more than 1 million are Revolut’s residential customers. In October, the financial superapp had 10 million residential customers in Central and Eastern Europe. Hungary is the third largest regional market after Romania and Poland, accounting for 10 percent of its customer base.
Fun fact: Out of over 1 million customers, 356,000 people live in Budapest - the capital's share of the domestic customer base is thus somewhere around 35 percent.
Revolut’s strong relationship with its Hungarian customers received a very strong confirmation last week. The company has launched an exclusive savings account in Hungary. The account offers interest rates of up to 4.75 percent gross per annum with daily withdrawals and instant access to the funds held in the account.
It is standard practice at Revolut to launch exclusive solutions in an important market that is expected to be open to the new product or service. Several attractive savings solutions have been launched on the domestic market in the last two years. As such, it is no coincidence that Revolut has also expanded in this direction.
And as for the next move, it is not unreasonable to imagine that the personal loan already available in neighbouring Romania could be launched in Hungary, too. It could be a perfect entry into the lending market – after all, Trive Bank didn’t choose online personal loans as its first Hungarian product without a reason.
(Cover photo: Revolut)
