“I want the UK to lead the world in developing Fintech. That’s my ambition – short and sweet.” (George Osborne, UK Chancellor at the launch of Innovate Finance)

And as evidenced by the multiple initiatives coming from the Silicon Valley, New York, Amsterdam, Paris, Berlin, Singapore, Hong Kong, Sydney and many others, this is clearly the ambition of many other people too! Since I’ve had very many hot debates with Fintech addicts about which city should win the Fintech race, I have decided to settle the question once and for all!

 

Obviously, I could not use any subjective measures such as the regulatory environment or the dynamism of the startup community. Using metrics linked to funding seemed too narrow-minded (and would always get the Americans first!) and counting the number of banks in each city was too laborious. After thinking long and hard, I found the INDISPUTABLE metrics that would crown the winner of the Fintech competition: the number of Twitter followers!

Because, let’s be frank, if you’re in Fintech and not on Twitter, your chances of success are quite slim. So now that I have (NOT!) scientifically proven that the number of Twitter followers actually reflect the ranking of each city in the Fintech race, here is the official list:

 

Place Twitter  Followers
New York @NYFTS 2,743
Hong Kong @FinTechHK 2,526
London @FinTechLondon 1,037
France @FinTechFR 850
Holland @HollandFinTech 432
Germany @FintechGermany 346
Switzerland @FintechCH 278
UK @CorpFintechUK 127
Italy @fintechitaly 6

 

So bravo to New York and Hong Kong, big disappointment for London, and remarkable fourth position for France! This is now settled and I will now move to NY or HK and leave London behind me!

Cheers!

 

PS : you have of course understood that it is a totally unscientific approach, but it’s not totally random either… What do you think? If you agree with the results, send me a tweet by clicking the button below

If you DON’T agree with the ranking, send me a tweet and say who should be first

And follow me here so I can have more followers than Fintech NY!

PPS : if you still doubt the validity of my approach, I can’t totally blame you… Especially because London should be first!