How tomorrow’s generation lives and what this means for your portfolio
When Qiao Ma, Portfolio Manager at Cooper Investors, was an elementary student in China, she and many of the other children in the class were excited about a new handheld gaming device called the Game Boy. Her father, a stock trader, wrote the device off as just a passing fad, convinced that soon the children would forget about the Game Boy.
Ma says she learned three important lessons from this early experience; 1) kids will always move onto smarter, more powerful gaming machines, 2) patterns of behaviour can be connected with stocks (in this case, Nintendo, which is up 500% since), and 3) Game Boys, for her generation, had the same significance as books for her father’s.
In the video below, Ma discusses how technology today is meeting the same basic human needs that were once addressed by sports, art, and even bars and pubs.
Meeting basic human needs
While some may see apps like Instagram as just mindless time wasting, Ma says it’s really meeting a fundamental desire.
“They’re really just a human way of telling stories via pictures. Isn’t this practice as old as time?”
Likewise, video gaming is no longer the domain of kids eating Cheetos in the basement. Elite gamers participate in huge esports events, looking to win outrageous sums of money in stadiums packed with tens of thousands of screaming fans.
Likewise, video gaming is no longer the domain of kids eating Cheetos in the basement. Elite gamers participate in huge esports events, looking to win outrageous sums of money in stadiums packed with tens of thousands of screaming fans.
“The atmosphere in that room is every bit as riveting and electrifying as an AFL game.”
So, if the most successful technology is that which is meeting basic human needs, the question follows; what needs are unmet in our modern society? She shares the example of Momo, an app which allows people to meet strangers nearby for conversations. The usefulness of such an application might not be obvious at first, until you put yourself into the mind of a migrant Chinese worker, with no pubs, churches, or social networks to make new friends.
“The basic yearning to connect is human, so they go online.”
There are many ways to play this hugely profitable thematic, and Ma outlines several of them during the presentation below.
Watch the full presentation
Learn how local Chinese companies are beginning to challenge the multi-nationals, why data is a key advantage, and hear Ma discuss one company that's staying young forever by constantly disrupting itself.
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Patrick is the founder and director of PLP Finance Media, a content production and strategy consulting agency specialising in investment content and communications. He also writes for A Rich Life.
Patrick was a Market Analyst, Editor, Senior Editor, and Managing Editor at Livewire Markets between 2015 and 2022. He was the Content Director and a member of the Investment Strategy & Research Group at Betashares between 2022 and 2024. He is an expert on listed products, commodities, and investment strategy, with a particular interest in gold and uranium,.
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Patrick is the founder and director of PLP Finance Media, a content production and strategy consulting agency specialising in investment content and communications. He also writes for A Rich Life. Patrick was a Market Analyst, Editor, Senior...
Expertise
Patrick is the founder and director of PLP Finance Media, a content production and strategy consulting agency specialising in investment content and communications. He also writes for A Rich Life. Patrick was a Market Analyst, Editor, Senior...
Expertise
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