Around the world, bearded twentysomethings are setting themselves up as financial gurus and are followed by masses in YouTube, Instagram O TikTok, where they advise how to better manage money.
In this last social network, the most downloaded application of 2021, the publications of the so-called “finfluencers” (influencers in finance) have become an unexpected success.
Tags like “StockTok” (ActionsTok) or “FinTok” have gotten millions and millions of views.
Australian Queenie Tan regrets the app didn’t exist six years ago, when she entered the intimidating world of finance. At that time he mainly turned to books for advice.
“It’s so much better now, because it’s so much more accessible,” said the 25-year-old, who has nearly 100,000 followers on her “Invest with Queenie” TikTok account and tens of thousands on Instagram and YouTube.
Recorded in his living room in Sydney, the videos range from simple investment vehicle explanations to economic lessons that can be gleaned from the worldwide hit Netflix series “The Squid Game.”
Like many “finfluencers”, his advice is reinforced by his own example. At her young age, this girl already has assets of $ 400,000 and encourages her followers to invest from a young age, as she did, to accumulate more wealth.
At the same time, he warns that his success came thanks to living frugally and investing his savings wisely.
A period living in poverty at the age of 19 “really taught me how to save and how to value money,” said the young woman, noting that she still has a simple life and does not consider “buying a mansion at any time in the short term.”
Queenie Tan claims, like many internet finance gurus, that she has no qualifications in the field.
An exception is the Mexican Andrés Garza, a certified investment strategy advisor with almost a million followers.
His videos are especially popular with young people who prefer to get ideas from people their own age and with an innate understanding of how to communicate on platforms like TikTok.
“People like me transform the complicated into enjoyable,” said this 22-year-old boy, with the face of a child, from his home in the city of Monterrey (northwest).
For him, the investment management applications that have appeared all over the world and social networks democratize access to wealth.
“The financial system has always lagged the ordinary investor,” but “more and more anyone can start investing,” he said.
Tan thinks it’s “cool” that so many people “feel empowered to start investing.”
“But on the other side of the coin, there are dark things happening too,” he says, accusing some digital gurus of being involved in strategies to artificially inflate the value of an asset and sell it later.
There is also the question of the reliability of the videos. Regulators in Spain and New Zealand have urged young investors to exercise caution in following their advice.
Plaxful, a cryptocurrency trading platform, noted that one in seven FinTok videos analyzed was misleading.
Critics also accuse these gurus of making more money from endorsements than from their investments, so some may be tempted to promote shady products.
In July, TikTok banned its users from publishing sponsored posts about cryptocurrencies and investment services.
Last month, British MPs criticized Facebook’s content policy director, Allison Lucas, for allowing the promotion of bad financial advice on the company’s Instagram app.
“We allow users to discuss and share advice on trade and investment,” Lucas defended.
Benjamin Schliebener, a 24-year-old German with over 50,000 TiTok followers, almost always recommends investing in diversified stock funds.
Sometimes he invests in individual stocks for fun, “but the clear message is that this is not for everyone.”
He and Tan both caution that users should do their own research before putting their money at risk.
“One of the most important things in investing is understanding what you are investing in,” Schliebener said.
Source From: Ambito
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