As the most unique group, how are post-80s and post-90s people around the world investing?

Earlier this year, the Global Gen Y and Gen Z Client Investment Behavior Survey gave the answers.

According to the survey, Gen Y (born between 1981 and 1995) and Gen Z (born between 1996 and 2010), known for being independent, interesting, and highly individualistic, are generally well-educated. They have experienced the rise and prosperity of the next generation of technological waves, are familiar with the Internet, technology products and social networks, know better how to tap excellent value and services, and have a strong need for effective use of online investment platforms for personal investment.

With the continuous penetration of fintech, innovative platforms incorporating “online investment+social elements” are increasingly popular among young investors around the world.According to the survey, young people have extended the act of “social sharing” to the investment community — 11.6% of Gen Y will share their profit charts through online investment platforms, and 9.7% of Gen Z will share their investment performance or opinions.This fully shows that more and more young people like to share their investment performance or opinions through online investment platforms. For them, getting social satisfaction while investing is just as important.

These major investors in global capital markets are triggering a new round of changes in the financial ecosystem. Whoever can walk among them has a ticket to the future.

Futu, which has social networking and comprehensive online investment services, has taken the initiative to adapt to the new investment trend of young people around the world. By going overseas and vigorously promoting an international strategy, Futu has become a typical example of many “going overseas” technology-based brokerage firms.

The “100,000th Milestone” came to a successful conclusion.A prototype of a global fintech company has emerged

On June 1, Futu, which was founded 9 years ago, ushered in a major milestone. On this day, Futu's number of users in Singapore reached 220,000, and the number of customers with assets exceeded 100,000, marking the beginning of Futu's internationalization.

Achieving this record was less than 3 months away from Futu's entry into the Singapore market.

Behind the “One Hundred Thousand Milestones” is Futu's international “secret weapon” — Moomoo.Futu's two major apps, “Futu Niu Niu” serves the Greater China region, and “Moomoo” serves English-speaking countries such as Singapore and the US. The two go hand in hand. As a one-stop digital financial service platform, Moomoo, with the ultimate investment service and product experience,It quickly won the favor of young overseas investors, reached the top of the overall Singapore app download list, and became a technology brokerage platform recognized by local investors.

In order to be more in line with the international style, Futu updated Moomoo's logo, based on Moomoo's first letter “M” and designed using a silhouette prototype of a Wall Street bull to further deepen Moomoo's international image among investors around the world.

Gary, a young investor from Singapore, talks about the huge changes that Moomoo has brought to his investment behavior.

“The charts in the local brokerage apps I've used are often difficult to understand, but Moomoo's investment charts are very simple and easy to understand. In addition to providing real-time quotes and news for free, moomoo also has a discussion community. These features are simple and practical, and can fully meet my dual needs for investment and learning.”

Extreme ease of operation is another major advantage of Moomoo. On the Moomoo platform, Singaporean citizens and permanent residents can open an account with one click by connecting to the Singapore government database MyInfo. Other residents can also complete account opening applications by submitting a photo of their ID and proof of address, and carry out a variety of transactions across markets.

Furthermore, Futu continuously optimizes Moomoo's transfer experience through technical means, and basically achieved 95% of transfers received in real time. “Just download Moomoo or open Futu Singapore's official website, and you can complete online account and deposit funds in a few minutes. The convenience of this kind of transaction is amazing.” Gary said.

By building a one-stop all-online financial service platform, while accelerating the development of overseas markets, it also conveys China's fintech products and Internet service concepts overseas, so that global investors can enjoy China's high-quality fintech services. This is one of the original purposes of Futu's strategy to promote internationalization. However, the success of the Singapore market is a high confirmation of Futu's competitiveness and influence in the world.

With the advancement of the international strategy, Futu's overseas users are also increasing, and Futu has become a globally competitive fintech company.

According to Futu Holdings' financial report for the first quarter of 2021, Futu had more than 14 million registered users worldwide during the period, spread across more than 200 countries and regions.Among the net increase in the number of clients with assets, Hong Kong, Singapore and other overseas customers accounted for more than 70%, showing Futu's great appeal to global investors.

The US market is also the strategic focus of Futu's international business, and Futu has great confidence in this. Taking Futu's phenomenal product Moomoo as an example, Futu founder Li Hua believes that Futu's products, which pursue depth, extreme, and connectivity, can also provide highly differentiated value propositions in the US market, thus filling the market gap between existing US technology-based brokerage firms and traditional brokerage firms.

As an important stop for Futu to go overseas, the success of the Singapore market further validates Futu's industry-leading international capabilities and product standards. This will undoubtedly bring more room for imagination to the capital market.

On the international stage,Companion to China New Economy Corporation

Cultivating new growth points for the new economy and achieving a smooth transition between old and new momentum is the key to China's economic development. As China's leading digital fintech company, Futu is also continuing to help the development of China's new economy through its advantages.

On April 15, 2021, Tucson, the leading autonomous truck unicorn in China, was listed on the NASDAQ in the future, becoming the world's first driverless stock.

Despite the glory of its own industry leaders, Tucson's future in overseas markets faces many serious problems that China Securities also faces — local investors don't understand Tucson's future and its business. If they don't get investors' attention, trading volume will be affected, and the company's value will not be objectively recognized by the market.

With Futu's help, the problem was solved.

As a brokerage firm providing services for Tucson's future listing this time, Futu quickly provided a series of English introduction materials through its subsidiary Moomoo, which attracted great attention from overseas investors. After learning about the value of this leading company in the Chinese segment, overseas investors enthusiastically subscribed, and Tucson was able to successfully enter the US stock market in the future, adding another success story to Futu's US stock market.

Thanks to the important strategy of internationalization, while delivering China's high-quality products and services overseas, Futu has also been committed to being a link between global investors and China's new economy enterprises, showing global investors the ideas and values of China's outstanding new economy enterprises, and helping enterprises gain global popularity.

On Moomoo, Futu provides IR and PR services to many Chinese listed companies like Tucson Future to help China's New Economy companies become well known to overseas investors. Investors can also watch live corporate performance broadcasts, roadshows, etc. through the Moomoo community to enhance their comprehensive understanding of China's new economy enterprises. Currently, investors from more than 200 countries and regions around the world, including Singapore, understand, pay attention to, and invest in China's new economy enterprises through the Futu platform.

In fact, Futu's help to China's new economy enterprises goes far beyond that.

Futu has always regarded corporate services as one of its three core businesses (securities brokerage and wealth management are the other two major sectors), and is favored by leading companies in the industry. By the end of Q1 2021, Futu had provided IPO distribution and IR services to 152 companies, and ESOP options management had a cumulative total of 200 signed clients, including leading companies from various industries such as healthcare, consumer retail, automotive, logistics and TMT, such as Rongchang Biology, Bubble Mart, Jiumaojiu, Xiaopeng Motor, Shell, Tencent Music, etc.

The reason why Futu is the best choice for leading companies on various tracks stems from its brokerage capabilities in US and Hong Kong stocks, promotion and operation capabilities, and one-stop ESOP solutions, which truly provide full-process capital market services for companies going to the US to Hong Kong.

Taking the ESOP service as an example, every time they come into contact with an enterprise, Futu first acts as a PMO (Project Management Manager), providing the enterprise with a global vision, making project plans, and then resolving current and future pain points according to the stage of development of the enterprise, with the ultimate goal of improving the effectiveness and experience of equity incentives, and truly solving the pain points in the enterprise's equity incentive process in a one-stop manner.

At the same time, many high-quality Chinese new economy enterprises were able to accurately convey their brand image and corporate value to global investors through the Futu platform. As of Q1, more than 500 new economy enterprises have successfully entered the Futu Enterprise account and have accurately reached a wider range of investors through online roadshows and live performance broadcasts.

As the internationalization strategy continues to deepen, Futu's value as a platform linking global investors to China's new economy enterprises is being further highlighted. It serves entities with solid capabilities and continues to provide effective and long-term companions for China's new economy enterprises.

Two hardcore forces escort “going overseas” to grab the beach

Although there are not a few technology-based brokerage firms that have gone overseas, and there are many local brokerage firms in markets such as the US and Singapore, Futu has its own ambition. These are the two major hard-core strengths formed through years of internal and external repairs.

The first is “soft power”, which includes technological strength, an international talent team, and is guided by user needs.

Technological strength is one of Futu's magic tricks to stay ahead in the industry. Futu has had technological genes since its inception. Founder Li Hua made a “difficult but correct choice”, which was to stick to the path of systematic self-development. Since its establishment 9 years ago, Futu has been independently researching and developing the underlying system, continuously solving users' pain points in account opening, capital entry and exit, market conditions, transactions, information, settlement, etc., and has driven innovation in the financial securities industry with its characteristics of safety, accuracy, stability, speed, and ease of use.

Because of this, Futu has a great advantage in product development and iteration speed. On July 25, 2018, Futu became the first brokerage firm in Hong Kong to support online account opening. It took less than half a month from emergency project establishment, launch, demand approval, code writing, testing, and the system was stable, ensuring the rapid launch and smooth operation of Hong Kong's online account opening system. This kind of response speed and product quality, which far exceeds that of other brokerage firms, fully proves Futu's technical strength.

Guided by user needs, this is another sharp tool of Futu. Futu is good at observing user needs and attaches importance to experience. All of its products are designed to be user-oriented. User feedback often becomes the first clue for Futu developers to develop and optimize products. Even Li Hua often personally “ends the scene” to provide users with one-on-one service answers. Using this seemingly “stupid” method, Futu obtained a large number of “hardcore” users who were willing to spread word of mouth for it after its establishment.

In terms of R&D investment, Futu also far exceeds the industry average. Currently, Futu's researchers account for more than 70%, and R&D expenses account for a relatively high share of corporate expenses. At the beginning of this year, Futu made a one-time investment of 15 million Hong Kong dollars, increasing the original 200 trading channels to 500, and was able to process 1,000 transaction orders per second, bringing investors a better trading experience.

Risk control capabilities are another highlight of Futu. With its cutting-edge scientific research capabilities, Futu has created a strict and efficient risk control system, thereby bringing safer product experiences and services to investors around the world. Recently, Futu Holdings, a subsidiary of Futu, announced that S&P Global Ratings gave the company a credit rating for the company's “BBB-” investment grade long-term issuer, and also granted the “bbb” group credit status. This is also the highest rating given by S&P to brokerage firms in Greater China.

Furthermore, driven by an international strategy, Futu has a large number of international talents, and localization teams in many overseas cities have been formed. The continuous improvement of the international talent pool has become a “driving force” for Futu to advance its internationalization strategy.

The second is the “hard power” of active licensing, which is an important reason why Futu has maintained excellent performance in the industry.

Compared with other Hong Kong and US stock online brokerage firms, Futu has the most complete license. As of Q1, it has held 35 financial licenses and qualifications for mainstream global financial markets such as Hong Kong, the US, Singapore and Europe. Its subsidiaries hold Class 1/2/3/4/5/5/7/9 licenses issued by the Hong Kong Securities Regulatory Commission, and are registered licensees of the US Securities Regulatory Commission and hold securities brokerage licenses issued by the US FINRA.

Following and fearing the rules of finance and adhering to the concept of “technology for good” is the ultimate logic behind Futu's licensing strategy. “We want our business to be a long-term thing, and long-term development requires us to actively discipline ourselves, obtain a license, and exhibit in compliance.” Li Hua once said this. According to Futu's plan, more licenses will be obtained in the future to better protect investors.

The Far Side of Futu

“In this era of being empowered by technology, technology has driven huge changes in finance, and we will actively embrace the opportunities brought by this big era.” In the 2021 letter to shareholders issued by Futu, Li Hua expressed full confidence about Futu's future.

“Make investing easier, not alone” to become an influential global financial services platform is Futu's mission and vision. It is also Futu's mission and vision. It is also the faraway place it will soon reach after years of intensive development in the field of fintech. Among the many technology-based brokerage firms that have gone overseas, Futu has become a typical example of an international layout with these unique differentiated advantages. While maintaining industry leadership, it is also becoming the “torchbearer” that empowers the industry through its own capabilities.