Finfluencers, Gamification and Youthful Finance

FinTech is transforming everyday financial knowledge and practice bydeveloping ‘fun’, ‘entertaining’ and ‘aspirational’ dimensions. This paperdevelops three research themes about why making finance fun matters. First, the merging of social media as entertainment and as sources of financial advice is leading to the rise of an influencer economy, and these ‘finfluencers’ are shaping everyday financial practice that could generate new and unequal risk outcomes. Second, gamification techniques are being used to capture attention in digital finance to encourage certain financial habits while also shaping the business strategies of banks and fintech firms to enhance their intermediary positions. Third, the combined impacts of finfluencers and gamification in everyday financial practice could change how the children and youth markets are being engaged and mobilized in changing financial subjectivities. Taken together, these trends are shaping new FinTech economies with shifting financial norms and behaviour.