LendingTree, Inc. (NASDAQ:TREE) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

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We don’t want it to become a feature factory, we want it to be things that genuinely add value for the consumer and drive engagement. And I was thinking about it earlier, you think about historically we talked about pushing our consumers in MyLendingTree to connect their accounts. And you could come in and use product to connect your accounts. And there was obviously potential benefit for us in terms of the information that we were gathering. But there wasn’t really anything on the other side for the consumer. And if you think about what we’re doing with the Win Card, we’re saying, here are these financial behaviors where we know you will be better off on the other side. And if you come in log in and show engagement with us, you’ll get your cash back.

And we know that we’re going to improve your credit score and your access to other financial products over time. Our research showed that that would resonate with our consumer base, and with the consumers who we want to be in MyLendingTree. So the Win Card is indicative of how we’re trying to position ourselves with consumers, which is access to more products over time because of good sound financial behavior. And so you can envision that we’re going to be helping consumers over time, address their debt stack, address which debts they should pay off first, that sort of thing. And really be an advocate for the consumer. That’s where we want, that’s where we want to be. We talk often internally about being a digital ally, for the consumer and the Win Card is the start of that.

Michael Grondahl: Got it, got it, thanks. And I’m trying to understand is it kind of a pivot or the beginning of a big new direction for you guys, legacy was sort of when banks compete, you win. And now it’s more of a, hey, you might have a financial need, and we got a product to meet that need, I’m just trying to understand that evolution?

Douglas Lebda: Yeah, so again, think of the marketplace in MyLendingTree, as you know, to as connected but also separate. So when you come to LendingTree, when banks can bring you in, you expect to see choice in comparison shopping, when you upgrade to MyLendingTree, you expect to get instantly approved, because we have all of your credit data, we’ve been giving you a free credit score probably for multiple months. And a lender integrated with us can do really interesting stuff on the underwriting side that you can’t do in a click out model until TreeQual is fully there. And so MyLendingTree has just given you the best answer. And we’ve got a lot of really exciting things coming. And we think the Win Card is broad enough to cover really most of the credit spectrum, the approval rate aspect, improve the unit economics and the features of it are targeted to exactly what MyLendingTree is, which is a financial journey, an ally to help you improve your financial standing and get you the best offers at the lowest price.

J.D. Moriarty: And Mike just from a marketplace strategy perspective, one of the things we talk about internally is degree of authentication. So if you look at our personal loans vertical, our partners and we’re delivering a highly authenticated consumer. That is true in mortgage as well. That is only true to an extent in insurance, that is not true in credit cards, that is not true in deposits, okay. Those are quick out businesses, where we’re not really delivering a lot of information on the consumer. We are authenticated in small business. We spend a lot of time talking about how much value are we delivering to our partners in terms of the type of information on that consumer where they can make informed lending decisions.

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