Assumption
New study from Visa & Opinium where they (online) surveyed 550 8-14 year olds in the UK found the following:
- Gen Alpha set to be most entrepreneurial yet — expectations for their workforce and working life very different to today.
- 76% aspire to be their own boss or have a side hustle.
- 78% have earned money in the past year (survey carried out end of August 2023).
- 43% of which used tech to do so.
- 26% generated income on social media, this is the most popular tool for them.
- Some have even made millions… from fidget spinners or NFTs.
- 40% of Gen Alpha think AI, VR & Smart Assistants will be integral to their future careers.
- “Children are more than three times as likely to learn about earning money by watching digital content creators than traditional sources such as books (35% v 10%).”
- “‘TikTokers’ and ‘YouTubers’ are leading the way as sources of inspiration, as social media and content creators emerge as most influential factors in stimulating ideas (61%), vs more conventional sources of inspiration such as drawing and writing (47%), reading (34%), and playing with toys (26%).”
Meet the “appy-eaters” — study from GoHenry on Gen A’s spending habits:
- In 2023, GoHenry kids in the UK, aged 6-18 spent a grand total of £7.85 million on their top three food delivery apps: Just Eat, UberEats, and Deliveroo.
- “Given that children and teenagers will have the majority of their meals at home or paid for by their parents, the fact that they’re paying for food delivery from a young age gives us a fascinating insight into their spending priorities.”
- “For this generation of Appy Eaters, food isn’t simply fuel: it’s an event to be enjoyed with friends, discussed, photographed and shared on social media – even when they’re eating alone.”
- Kids are drawn to convenience of food apps — wider theme of “lifestlye convenience…”
Problem
Similar products/services that “validate” the problem
- gohenry — UK-based banking app for children, acquired by Acorns in Apr-23
- Focus on 6-18 age group
- Two main products/services
- Prepaid debit card (topped up by parents)
- “Financial education” app linked to card
- and an app that parents can use to help monitor/manage kid’s account
- 2 million customers — footprint in UK, France, Italy, Spain.
- Combined co. has nearly 6 million customers/subscribers.
- Acorns itself has products that target children (Gen Z/A) — Acorns Early.
- Lets parents, guardians, family and friends invest in a child’s future.
- Greenlight — offers debit card to kids, $100m in ARR as of 2021.
- Step
- Current
- Capital One — has a teen checking account, MONEY, that has rave reviews.
- Revyze is a French startup building the “TikTok for education.” — Helping French students with school curriculum, moved into offering SAT prep. Ties into Problem 3, platform for education.
- How Banking Serves Gen A — apps, gamification and social media.
- Changebowl (no longer active) — Acrons-style investment app, rounds up spare change and donates to non-profits — revamp idea for ETFs, charity, impact investing.
Financial Literacy is a top priority for this generation
- 67% of teens and their parents rank finances as one of their most talked about issues in Feb ‘23.
- Despite all the online resources and finance apps at their fingertips, teens score an average of only 64% on the National Financial Literacy Test.
- 48% of Gen A learn about finances from social media but most report they don’t trust all the info they consume.
Gen A’s learning path and education will look different to other generations.
- This generation prefer to learn from their peers — TikTok creators/educators or YouTubers
- TikTok is generalist, whereas Revyze from above filters out non-educational content.
- #LearnOnTikTok has 860B+ views — opportunity to niche down further.
Customer
Niche down
There will be 2.2B of Gen A’s in 2025, split into many subgroups:
- On the spectrum
- Multicultural kids
- Creators — see below
Roblox creators
- Biggest Gen A earners made their money on social media.
- Particularly, gaming platforms like Roblox — the top 10 Roblox creators took home an average of $23m in 2023…
- Half of all Roblox users belong to Gen A.
- If there is a cohort of Gen A who have come into more money than they could ever need at an incredibly young age and not know how to manage the money, it’s the Roblox creators…
- Although, this is still an assumption.
Solution
- The future is unbundled… Unbundle TikTok in the financial education niche.
- Internal — day-to-day household skills (chores, spending, saving).
- External — Investing, business finance.
- There’s a huge disparity in where this generation spends their time when it comes to apps
- 2 hrs per day on TikTok
- 9 minutes per day on Duolingo
- Opportunity to come down the middle (medium engagement but educational)
- “The TikTok for [X] educational content” —
- “The TikTok for finance educational content — #fintok has 4.8B views…