Technology
The Future of the Internet Industry
The Future of the Internet Industry
In today’s connected world, Internet connection has become a need instead of a luxury, and a push to ensure universal access is picking up steam. In fact, Facebook and Google have both begun projects to ensure communities without Internet receive free access to the web.
Even lawmakers have taken note of the universal Internet access need. In Wisconsin, the state has awarded $500,000 in grants to expand rural Internet access to incentivize private corporations to offer their services. A similar push is taking place in Canada. Residents of Alberta’s Strathcona County are heavily underserved, only 35% of the county’s residents have access to Internet. The County’s council unanimously voted in favour of funding investment into telecommunication infrastructure. The story is the same overseas; India, which will be part of the largest internet traffic market, is setting aside millions to connect remote villages to the Internet.
There is a major investment opportunity in companies that will be developing the associated IT infrastructure. With many markets across the world aiming to connect more users, billions will be spent in infrastructure. Canadian telecommunications giant, Telus (TSE: T), recently announced it will invest $2.8 billion in infrastructure in order to gain market share in underserved markets. This is on trend with growing North American demand, as evidenced by the infographic. The infographic shows that the North American market generates the most business traffic, watches the most internet TV, and is second in internet gaming.
Underserved Africa is seeing similar investment in infrastructure. French telecoms operator Orange (NYSE: ORAN), international connectivity services provider, BICS (Euronext: BLG), and Internet Solutions (owned by Nippon, NYSE: NTT) have all announced new IT infrastructure investment in Africa. This is a savvy move for the growing market. As the infographic indicates, Africa’s internet traffic has quadrupled in the last five years alone, and this trend is likely to continue.
Original infographic from: Cisco Systems
Markets
Charted: What are Retail Investors Interested in Buying in 2023?
What key themes and strategies are retail investors looking at for the rest of 2023? Preview: AI is a popular choice.
Charted: Retail Investors’ Top Picks for 2023
U.S. retail investors, enticed by a brief pause in the interest rate cycle, came roaring back in the early summer. But what are their investment priorities for the second half of 2023?
We visualized the data from Public’s 2023 Retail Investor Report, which surveyed 1,005 retail investors on their platform, asking “which investment strategy or themes are you interested in as part of your overall investment strategy?”
Survey respondents ticked all the options that applied to them, thus their response percentages do not sum to 100%.
Where Are Retail Investors Putting Their Money?
By far the most popular strategy for retail investors is dividend investing with 50% of the respondents selecting it as something they’re interested in.
Dividends can help supplement incomes and come with tax benefits (especially for lower income investors or if the dividend is paid out into a tax-deferred account), and can be a popular choice during more inflationary times.
| Investment Strategy | Percent of Respondents |
|---|---|
| Dividend Investing | 50% |
| Artificial Intelligence | 36% |
| Total Stock Market Index | 36% |
| Renewable Energy | 33% |
| Big Tech | 31% |
| Treasuries (T-Bills) | 31% |
| Electric Vehicles | 27% |
| Large Cap | 26% |
| Small Cap | 24% |
| Emerging Markets | 23% |
| Real Estate | 23% |
| Gold & Precious Metals | 23% |
| Mid Cap | 19% |
| Inflation Protection | 13% |
| Commodities | 12% |
Meanwhile, the hype around AI hasn’t faded, with 36% of the respondents saying they’d be interested in investing in the theme—including juggernaut chipmaker Nvidia. This is tied for second place with Total Stock Market Index investing.
Treasury Bills (30%) represent the safety anchoring of the portfolio but the ongoing climate crisis is also on investors’ minds with Renewable Energy (33%) and EVs (27%) scoring fairly high on the interest list.
Commodities and Inflation-Protection stocks on the other hand have fallen out of favor.
Come on Barbie, Let’s Go Party…
Another interesting takeaway pulled from the survey is how conversations about prevailing companies—or the buzz around them—are influencing trades. The platform found that public investors in Mattel increased 6.6 times after the success of the ‘Barbie’ movie.
Bud Light also saw a 1.5x increase in retail investors, despite receiving negative attention from their fans after the company did a beer promotion campaign with trans influencer Dylan Mulvaney.
Given the origin story of a large chunk of American retail investors revolves around GameStop and AMC, these insights aren’t new, but they do reveal a persisting trend.
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