By Amit Jay Shah, CEO, ShareVision
A lot has changed in the world of content, but one thing has not: the need to create something that engages audiences in a meaningful way. Social media platforms such as Facebook and TikTok show that audiences need engaging posts and videos they can learn from and share with others. TikTok had 94 million downloads last year, and new content is uploaded to Instagram and other platforms every minute. Until now, you would be hard-pressed to find a similar phenomenon in financial content. However, reliable and engaging financial content is especially critical now. A lack of personal finance knowledge costs an estimated average of $1,389 per individual, or $352 billion total, in the U.S. each year, according to a new survey from the National Financial Educators Council (NFEC). Meanwhile, debt levels have continued to climb. The national student loan debt topped $1.6 trillion this year with just under 44 million borrowers. Household credit card debt is also rising, seeing its largest quarterly increase in at least 22 years, now at $860 billion, according to the New York Federal Reserve.
With every trader in the world in close proximity to a Breaking News terminal such as Benzinga Pro, there is a need for content that can reach a new generation of investors and traders in an authentic and convenient way. Younger people in particular prefer apps and other digital personal finance tools and content to traditional resources. - That’s why we built ShareVision - They want information quickly. And what they want isn't getting it done. The content they get is designed to maximize page views and clicks, rather than inform investment decisions quickly.
A whole generation of students requires financial literacy in order to save, pay, earn, and invest. The landscape of financial management has changed over the years, with the advent of countless digital tools, yet habits such as tracking spending, budgeting and saving wisely remain impactful. Combining tried-and-true strategies with modern technology can help young people reach their financial goals. So if you're an investor in cryptocurrencies, you can scour content from a host of creators and content provider partners and use it to inform your decision-making.
Creating Equals Earning
Today, creators can monetize their content utilizing wallets, which allow them to receive donations from their community directly onto their own channels. They can upload content for free or create a private channel in which fans subscribe to see their content. The ways in which we create and consume content have changed. Seeing successes off TikTok and what Twitch has done for gaming, we believe there needs to be a place for content creators who are solely distributing content based on finance – whether it’s basic principles of investing or more complex topics such as short selling or derivatives. Financial literacy has become more of a national imperative, as the Covid pandemic highlighted how many people in the U.S. are living on the financial edge. Nearly two-thirds of American families do not have the equivalent of six weeks’ savings and 78 percent of adults live paycheck to paycheck. When asked in the NFEC survey how they would handle an unexpected expense, one in four said they would charge the expense to a credit card or take out a loan, adding to their debt. This has prompted the government to step in to fill the gap. Michigan recently became the 14th state to guarantee students access to a personal finance education course before high school graduation, and more are soon to follow. However, that is only the beginning.
To increase wealth and well-being we must educate – our goal is to ensure content creators are able to reach as many people as possible, engage with people on the platform, and monetize that as well. To do so we created restreaming technology that allows creators to stream content onto YouTube, Twitch, and Facebook simultaneously. With a wallet, you can replicate a stablecoin system in which content creators can spend money and receive payments for their content. We can enable creators to monetize their content through a range of financial tools - all of it built on live streaming technology.
Today consumers and creators of financial content come from all over the world, from Malaysia to New York. Financial content streaming platforms can help solve the problem around education about investing and other key financial topics for new generations. They can democratize the delivery of that content by allowing anyone with content to use these platforms to monetize and engage with their audience.
Bridging the Gap
To increase wealth, investors must be properly educated on the risks of investing, the skills and experience that are needed, and the commitment that it takes as well. Investing and trading – be it stocks or cryptocurrencies – is a process. Investing is not a get rich quick scheme. Yes, it’s possible to earn handsome returns on individual trades, but these trades can also produce deep losses.
Streaming platforms can be part of the solution, educating people about the right way to invest. When you consider growth in fintech and an increasing number of startups in lending, payments, and other technologies, we see the demand for financial content growing exponentially in the next few years. Cryptocurrencies, the metaverse, and financial innovation tied to the blockchain and decentralization will create an enormous need for content and clarity – making sense of it all will be very important. And we’d like to think these platforms are going to be increasingly more important to bridge that gap.
