Millennials, it seems, will not simply invest in a company because it’s stock prospects look good. Millennials are interested in what the company is and what it stands for. In turn, companies can, according to Denis Globa, CEO of TradingView, make themselves more attractive to millennial investors by increasing corporate social responsibility and leveraging online communities.
Millennials grew up with endless access to information, making them more aware of social issues and allowing them to get to know companies through social media. This means that big companies as well as investing platforms need to change tactics.
To understand this shift more fully, Digital Journal spoke with Denis Globa, CEO of TradingView.
Digital Journal: There’s a perception that millennials don’t save much of their income. Is this true?
Denis Globa: I would say that’s generally true. People who don’t have much money tend to save less. Plus, the millennials are putting more emphasis on experiences than owning things. It’s the age of experience where many products are digital products – not something you can touch, but still useful and enjoyable. Many are licensed rather than owned, and people are comfortable with that.
DJ: When millennials save, where do they tend to put their money?
Globa: I’d say relatively small income savings accounts where it’s easy to move money in and out. They also tend to invest in simple stocks through companies like RobinHood.
DJ: What can be done to attract millennials to invest more?
Globa: Making investing easier and more understandable will attract more millennials to the stock market. The experience of buying a stock should be as easy as getting something from Amazon or buying a game online.
DJ: Do millennials have a strong brand identity?
Globa: Millennials have more of a strong product identity. With many industries having closely competing products – think phones or clothes – sticking to a single brand is almost meaningless as there are hundreds out there. It doesn’t impress anyone if you always stick with a Xiaomi phone and Ralph Lauren shirts – it just doesn’t matter. However, finding a great product amidst the hundreds and buying it based on the value it provides – whether it’s an unusual design of a shirt or a phone that outperforms the iPhone at half the price – is more of an identity.
DJ: What are the types of companies that millennials want to invest in?
Globa: People always tend to invest in companies that they’ve heard of or at least know what they do. Brands that are at the forefront of attention, and hopefully performing well, attract fans of the product who support the company through stocks.
DJ: How did you come to set up TradingView?
Globa: We saw an opportunity, a void, a chance to make something better. There are thematic online communities and great products for many industries, such as Dribbble, GrabCAD, Reddit, Imgur, etc., but there was nothing like that for the financial world.
DJ: How important is it to have an engaging platform?
Globa: It’s incredibly important. Would you rather use iOS or DOS? Engaging comes in the form of careful design and powerful features. However, the features need to be easy to use and somewhat hidden.
You don’t want users to get overwhelmed with all the options and buttons they don’t necessarily need, but you still want them accessible in case users do need them. You need something that can’t break. Would you as a common user of Google rather dig through support websites and correct the registry to something Windows-based or just open a website that always works? It depends on the functionality. When you have ease of use and functionality, you have a home run.
DJ: What types of technology does TradingView use?
Globa: We use over 300-500 different ones. Our main ones are Javascript, HTML5 and Python. We use different technology for various parts of the product – from managing databases to passing and storing market data for hundreds of thousands of tickers that may have 100 updates per minute or five updates per second. We have more than eight million people per month and tens of thousands working on the site at any given time. It takes a lot of framework to make something run smoothly.
DJ: Who is your core market?
Globa: We aim to help individual traders and investors, and more specifically, people who don’t do it for a living but are managing their own money and are looking to learn more and improve.
DJ: How do you differ from your competitors?
Globa: TradingView fits between three spheres of influence: traditional online news portals with simple charts (MarketWatch, Wall Street Journal), online charting websites that don’t have much beyond charts (Stockcharts, Finiz), and social places with no news or charts (Twitter, Stocktwits, forums, message boards). We take the best of the three worlds and ply it into one congruous piece that is powerful, east to use and adds value.
