Why Robinhood Is Seeking Merry Traders Overseas
The equity trading platform needs to diversify its revenue sources — and Britons like to gamble.
Robinhood Markets is seeking to diversify its income by expanding overseas.
Photographer: Spencer Platt/Getty Images
Britain’s stock-investing culture has been withering for years, with the only real growth coming from consultants, policymakers and commentators generating ideas on how to revive it. So why is Robinhood Markets Inc. so keen to expand in the UK? The draw may be more the country’s enthusiasm for online betting than allocating savings to equities.
The trading app that shot to infamy during the meme-stock craze of 2021 offers US stock trading to UK customers and is about to add margin lending against those stocks, followed by US options and, potentially one day, UK equities too. But if Britain isn’t a nation of active stock punters, nor is it a place that allows brokers like Robinhood to take payments from market makers for its clients’ trades.