Interactive Investor is launching its own social media platform

Customers of DIY investing platform Interactive Investor can now chat with each other online, as the website launches its own social media app.

The app, ii Community, allows users to discuss investing tips, pick stocks and compare portfolios for free.

Interactive Investor, owned by Abrdn, said ii Community users can use performance data to compare their portfolio with others, track growth and get weekly performance reviews.

“Users can chat with like-minded investors, exchange ideas and strategies,” said head of equity strategy Lee Wild.

‘The ii Community app allows ii customers to discuss market trends, investment ideas and winning trades, and share thoughts on key global events, policy changes and economic publications.’

Interactive Investor hopes to tap into the growing influence of social media on do-it-yourself investors by launching its own platform.

Research conducted by Opinium on behalf of Interactive Investor last year found that 30 percent of working-age Britons consider social media to be a useful source of investment information.

It has more influence on younger investors, with 16 percent of respondents under 40 citing social media as their biggest influence in learning about investing, pensions and pensions.

Similar efforts by investment firms to build social platforms for users include Social Trading from eToro and 212 Social from Trading 212.

Many active retail investors are also known to discuss trading on more generic social platforms, most notably Reddit, Youtube and X (formerly Twitter).

This has not gone unnoticed by regulators, with the Financial Conduct Authority increasingly concerned about the influence of unqualified financial advice influencers – or ‘finfluencers’.

Interactive Investor’s research also shows that investing is seen as ‘too complicated’ by 58 percent of Brits and as ‘intimidating’ by 56 percent. Another 46 percent believe that the investment process is too time-consuming.

The company said the standalone app – which will be separate from its investing platform – aims to “make investing less intimidating” by creating a forum where users can ask questions anonymously under a chosen name.

Wild added: “Social media is a medium that is not going away, and if used responsibly it can clearly be a valuable channel to reach and educate people about investing. It is something that Interactive Investor takes very seriously as a platform.

‘At ii Community we already have a number of engaged users on the platform, who are keen to use this new social platform as a tool to have open and honest conversations about their investment journey, with the aim of helping themselves and others learn more.’