Morgan Stanley is getting into the “robo-advice” business, where software manages funds instead of people. The service, Access Investing, is aimed at younger investors, and helps them put their money with the businesses they’re most interested in.
“Forty percent of our clients have chosen to invest in a theme, and the most popular ones [are] robotics and artificial intelligence,” Naureen Hassan, Chief Digital Officer for Wealth Management at Morgan Stanley, told Cheddar.
The financial firm rolled out its Access Investing division, which focuses on advising clients online, in December. Hassan says that her team has seen a lot of engagement with from people 45 and under.
Robo-advisers, or digital investment portfolios, are not very new. The field has competitors, such as Betterment or Wealthfront, that have been making strides in the sector.
But Morgan Stanley says it’s betting on its legacy to differentiate itself in the industry.
“We think it’s the Morgan Stanley investing expertise that really differentiates it,” Hassan said. “That’s why we are offering clients choice, it just isn’t only a passive portfolio, we believe in a mix of assets.”
The decision to abandon recent changes to Snapchat that were unpopular with users raises the question of whether the social media app is trying to appeal more to publishers than its core user, says Marty Swant, a staff writer at Adweek.
Increased interest in the Overwatch League could push franchise fees as high as $100 million in the future, says eSports expert Rod Breslau, better known as "Slasher." The League is currently wrapping up its first season and the Grand Finals are scheduled to kick off at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, NY, on July 27.
The Falcon 9 'Block 5', which theoretically can be reused 100 times without much maintenance, took off Friday afternoon from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The rocket carried a communications satellite into orbit for Bangladesh and then successfully landed back on a platform in the Atlantic.
The 'Block 5' rocket is the first Falcon 9 rocket that can theoretically be reused 10 times without any maintenance, and up to 100 times with just minor servicing. If SpaceX can pull off seven successful 'Block 5' launches, the company could get clearance from NASA to do manned missions, says Will Goodman, managing editor of Rockets Are Cool.
Huya sees itself as the Twitch of China, with 40 million active monthly users on mobile and $344 million in revenue. The Chinese company traded up as much as 41 percent from its IPO price of $12 on Friday.
The London-based fintech start-up allows users to buy and trade cryptocurrencies, making it a direct competitor to the U.S.-based Robinhood. Revolut also sees itself as a disruptor of the traditional banking industry, as it offers checking accounts, peer-to-peer payments, and international money transfers, says Chad West, the company's chief marketing officer.
Facebook is planning to launch its own cryptocurrency, Cheddar senior reporter Alex Heath has learned. A source says the social media company is "very serious" about building a digital coin for users to make secure online payments. This news comes just days after Facebook reorganized its executive leadership and created a team solely devoted to exploring blockchain technology.
Dropbox stock is trading lower even after the company reported a successful first quarter. The cloud storage company beat estimates on earnings and revenue in its first quarterly report as a public company. Dropbox added 500,000 paid users, bringing its total number of paid users to 11.5 million.
BUST Magazine will host its annual Craftacular event in Brooklyn this weekend. The event brings together dozens of local artists and businesses. We talk to Debbie Stoller, editor-in-chief and co-publisher of BUST Magazine, and Laurie Henzel, creative director and co-publisher of BUST Magazine, about what to expect.
Dropbox stock is trading lower even after the company reported a successful first quarter. The cloud sharing company beat estimates on earnings and revenue in its first quarterly report as a public company. Dropbox also added 500,000 paid users.
The competition between Amazon and Google just got a little more interesting. Amazon has stopped buying Google Shopping ads, according to a report in Bloomberg. Amazon is increasingly expanding its reach in the digital ad market, a space that Google dominates.
The music streaming company's decision to stop promoting R. Kelly, who has been accused of sexually abusing women in a sex cult, was driven by a social push from its users, says Phillip Tracy, tech writer for the Daily Dot.
Dolo uses location to help users find people around them, encouraging them to meet new friends. Safety, of course, is a major concern and the app lets users go by fake names and mask their profile pictures, say the co-founders Raja Haddad and Ben Vigier.
