From FD returns to cricket analogy, Twitter reacts to Zerodha’s profit

Amid faltering profit of new-age internet companies, bootstrapped Zerodha broke all records by reporting an 87% jump in its annual net profit to ₹2,094 crore in FY22. The growth trajectory of the online brokerage firm has received huge applause from Twitteratis.

Amid appreciation, many are highlighting the major chunk of Zerodha's investments in Fixed Deposits(FD), often advocated as the worst investment tool.

However, Zerodha founder, Nithin Kamath, is often seen encouraging young and new investors to build their safe haven by starting from fixed deposit investments. Months ago, he had also suggested the people to invest in government securities (G-Sec) and Treasury Bill (T-bill), as they would give much better interest rates.  

Abid Hassan, CEO of Sensibull, India's largest options trading platform, highlighted Zerodha's approach towards its growth, and called it a complete contrast with many fintech firms which set unrealistic profit targets despite undergoing loss.

"Other Fintechs: We made 1000 Cr losses. But in the next 3 years, we will make 1 Lakh Crore Profit. Also, 77% of India and 95% of the world will use our app

Le Zerodha: We made 2000 Cr profits. But this is luck. Set your expectations realistic, bois. Sab mohmaya hain", tweeted Abid Hassan.

Another Twitter user compared Zerodha's success with cricketer Suryakumar Yadav's ramp shot. Whereas, other fintech firms' performance was compared with a clean bold shot.

“India's largest brokerage with all info access has the highest allocation to FDs, advocated as the worst investment. Tells you something” tweeted Aviral Bhatnagar, a Venture Highway investor.

Another tweet, by Vaibhav Sisinty,Growth School Founder, mentioned the key factors behind Zerodha's growth. He mentioned below reasons behind Zerodha's success.

-Types of users: Zerodha's focus was always on stock market traders, unlike its competitors who also laid emphasis on investors. They transact daily, or weekly and Zerodha charges Flat ₹20 or 0.03% on every trade.

-Account opening fees: Zerodha charges ₹200 on opening Demat account. “Traders and investors who are serious don't mind paying a small fee to get access to their platform. Also, it kind of positions it as a premium platform.” said Vaibhav in his Twitter thread.

-Maintenance Charges: Zerodha also charges a small amount of ₹300 as subscription from its users on an annual basis.

-Smart marketing: Zerodha executes a smart marketing strategy at low cost. The company not only is engaged in affiliate marketing, but also expands its presence with education courses.

Twitter was divided on Zerodha's comparison with Tata Consultancy Services due to its high profits. Many applauded the online brokerage firm for generating a high amount of profit with less number of employees. Whereas, some criticised the comparison.

“TCS has 6 lac employees / 45k cr profits or 7.5L profit /employee. Zerodha has 2k employees / 2K cr profits or 1 cr per employee. Size and efficiency masters.” tweeted Alok Jain, who introduces himself as a SEBI Research analyst.

TCS, one of India's largest private sector employers, registered a lower-than-expected profit in its Q3 FY23 results. Its profit for the quarter ending in December surged by 11% to ₹10,883 crore. Its consolidated revenue was up by 19.11%.