The Rise of the TikTok Trader

Hi all, Julie here. Teen social media mecca TikTok is largely a repository for dance videos, pranks and direct-to-camera confessionals. But scroll through for a few minutes and there’s a good chance you’ll come across another kind of content: ads for Robinhood Markets Inc.

The under-35 set has been reticent to invest in stocks since the 2008 financial crisis, but a wave of mobile-first fintech companies is making investing more appealing to younger people. As TikTok videos will show you (one user's tutorial has about 66,000 likes), Robinhood’s user interface makes it simple to buy individual stocks. On the ByteDance Inc. social network, videos with the hashtag “#invest” have racked up about 76 million views, and #stocks has 32 million.