Zecco's Broker Battle

But given the huge amounts that the big online brokerages spend on overhead and marketing, they can't afford to pass up the trading fees, he says. "Their cost base is so huge they cannot forgo the revenue stream on commissions," he says.

Zecco serves up ads on its site, and tapping into the fast-growing online ad market also is helping the company provide free trading.

Zecco also aims to pioneer new ways that investors can exchange ideas about stocks. The company is developing an online financial portal that draws together news stories -- much like the services already offered by Yahoo!(YHOO - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr), Google(GOOG - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr), and Microsoft's(MSFT - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr) MSN site.

But Zecco also is trying to take advantage of the growing online trend toward social networks to put together a community of investors that can share views about market developments. To this end, Zecco's site includes forums and a variety of blog postings that can be searched by a company's ticker symbol.

This idea isn't new either -- Yahoo!'s site features a burgeoning message board group, and Google incorporates many blogs -- but Zecco hopes that putting all these elements together will make it the go-to destination for savvy investors.

Still, Zecco's attempt to offer financial information about stocks remains a work in progress. The site can be confusing and difficult to navigate. And though Veth argues that a new generation of investors will be drawn to his company's community aspects, the road here could be much trickier than it was for social media darlings like News Corp.'s MySpace and Facebook, which play in much less serious markets.