Finimize - 🇨🇳 Goldman’s counting on China

Hi Reader, here's what you need to know for February 21st in 3:11 minutes.

🇬🇧 The UK’s a bit of a paradox right now, with a dire outlook but a first-class FTSE 100 performance. So tune into JPMorgan’s Mike Bell on the Finimize Podcast, and get the real lie of the British land. Listen in on Spotify or YouTube

Today's big stories

Meta took a page from Twitter’s playbook and announced a subscription service of its own
Fund managers are backing four specific investments right now – Read Now
Goldman Sachs said that China’s stocks are on an upward trajectory

If You Can’t Beat ‘Em

What’s Going On Here?

Meta announced over the weekend that it’s joining the social media subscription-service club.

What Does This Mean?

Advertising revenue is Meta’s bread and butter, but Apple’s new privacy policy threw a wrench in the works back in 2021 by limiting how closely companies could track users’ data. That hit Meta’s Facebook and Instagram platforms hard: they’d got used to selling super-targeted ads based on users’ activity, and Meta estimated the shake-up would slash its annual ad takings by $10 billion last year. And with today’s global economic slowdown making waves and shrinking firms’ advertising budgets, Meta’s had to put on its thinking cap. The brainwave: offer users perks like account verification, enhanced fraud protection, and greater visibility for a set fee.

Why Should I Care?

Zooming in: Meta’s edge.
Meta’s playing a game of catch-up on this one, with rivals Snap and Twitter having already deployed the whole “turn-your-users-into-subscribers” stratagem. But with Twitter's offering pretty slow to take off, it’s far from clear that users are actually willing to pay for perks like these. Mind you, Meta does have a trick or two up its sleeve. First, subscribers will have to verify their identity with a government ID, side-stepping the worries about fraudulent “verified” accounts that plagued Twitter last year. And second, the firm has an edge when it comes to user numbers, so if even a few of its content creators sign up, the rest could end up following suit out of fear of – gasp – social media irrelevancy.

For markets: Valuation potential.
This venture could be a dream come true for Meta’s investors: subscriptions can secure a very reliable stream of cash, giving businesses the kind of predictability that often leads to higher valuations. And with Meta still down 15% from a year ago – despite the cost cuts and share buyback announcements that recently boosted shares – that shot in the arm could be just what the doctor ordered.

You might also like: Five Big Tech themes for 2023.

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Analyst Take

Where Four Pros Would Invest $10,000 Now

By Luke Suddards, Analyst

Now’s the time for new ideas.

Sure, retail investors have come back swinging – but US stocks aren’t quite as attractive as they were, so you can’t go searching for bargains in all the usual places.

So I figured it’s time to check out where the savviest pros are investing – and as luck would have it, Bloomberg recently asked four fund managers where they’d invest $10,000 right now.

That’s today’s Insight: here’s where four big-time fund managers would invest right now.

Read or listen to the Insight here

Investing fees don’t need to be so complicated

If you like keeping things simple, you could love Interactive Investor – or ii, if you’re a regular.

See, ii is known for boasting a wide range of flat-fee investing plans, each with a fixed monthly subscription, that have been more cost-efficient for those with hefty investment pots.

And now ii’s unveiled the brand-new Investors Essentials plan, which lets you invest up to £30,000 for a fixed fee of £4.99 a month – ii’s cheapest plan yet.

You’ll get to pick from the biggest range of UK and international investments on the market, all while enjoying the bliss of free regular investing.

And get this: if you hit that £30,000 threshold, you’ll automatically graduate to ii’s most popular plan for just £9.99 a month – no slaps on the hand or hidden excess fees in sight.

Simplify your investing fees with ii.

Find Out More

For £4.99 you get Free regular investing, additional trading fees do apply. The value of your investments may go down as well as up and international investments may also be affected by currency fluctuations which might reduce their Sterling/GBP value. You may not get back all the money that you invest. If you are unsure about the suitability of an investment product or service, you should seek advice from an authorised financial advisor.