China’s Robinhoods steal young traders from Singapore’s old-school brokerages

Commuters in Singapore may have recently seen advertisements featuring tigers and bulls set against bright yellow and orange backdrops while passing through the city-state’s MRT system.

These aren’t part of the Singapore Zoo’s latest campaign.

Rather, they are advertisements for Tiger Brokers and Moomoo, which offer online stock trading services via their mobile apps.

The two are owned by Chinese fintech companies that are listed on the Nasdaq stock exchange – UP Fintech owns Tiger and Futu runs Moomoo. Both apps have been dubbed “the Robinhood of China” after the US-based stock trading app that has generated headlines over the past year.

Having entered Singapore in March 2020, Tiger’s backers include Chinese electronics company Xiaomi and American brokerage Interactive Brokers. Meanwhile, Moomoo was launched in the city-state in March this year. It is backed by Chinese tech giant Tencent.

Like Robinhood, these companies have reaped some benefits from the Covid-19 pandemic.

Many younger people who found themselves stuck at home as a result of lockdowns and work from home policies started trading for the first time. Glenden Kua, 27, is one of them. He started trading on Tiger during Singapore’s circuit breaker period after a friend introduced him to the app.

“She was using it and said that it was quite easy to use – all the functions are there – there’s a community there as well. So I said OK, I’ll go and try, and turns out it was quite straight forward,” Kua recalls.

For those lucky enough to keep their jobs, lockdowns have also resulted in more spare cash, as opportunities to spend on dining out, nightlife, and travel have been sharply curtailed.

This is evident in the breakneck growth in users, trading volume, and account balances that both UP Fintech and Futu have seen.

Singapore’s online brokerage scene is a crowded one, with both local and foreign players competing to attract investors and traders.

Tiger and Moomoo offer some of the lowest commissions in the market, along with practically zero minimum funding requirements.

Show me the money

Growing pains

Managing risks

Changing winds

What to expect

Huge opportunity, fierce competition