Rajveer Shishodia is an Indian fitness influencer with 2.1 million followers on video-streaming platform Youtube. But in one of his videos, he flaunts his new luxury car Range Rover even as he tells his viewers they can also make easy money on the side — by using a binary-option-trading platform Binomo.
This brand partnership may seem odd to a casual viewer seeking workout videos or healthy recipes, but Shishodia’s followers are used to such frequent digressions.
One may wonder how an iron-pumping gym rat known for his body transformation ended up endorsing an electronic trading platform (ETP) meant for binary options binary options Binary Options A binary option is an options contract in which the payout depends entirely on the outcome of a yes/no proposition and typically relates to whether the price of a particular asset will rise above or fall below a specified amount with over 75 underlying assets, including foreign currencies and cryptocurrencies?
He’s not an aberration. Influencers who have cultivated a devoted fan base are now stepping out of their comfort zone to promote new products and services as their personalities get more pronounced than their content.
“Brand deals and affiliate marketing affiliate marketing Affiliate Marketing In this arrangement affiliates receive a commission for each visit, sign-up, or sale they generate for a merchant make up the highest portion of my earnings, and since mid-2020, deal proposals from fantasy-sports apps and investment platforms have flooded my inbox,” said Rishabh Rai, a Delhi-based entertainment content creator with roughly 450,000 followers on Youtube and the photo-and-short-video app Instagram together.
Social-media platforms have been brimming with financial advice since the early-2020 bull run in the capital markets, thanks to financial influencers or “finfluencers”. Among those that popularised this term are Ankur Warikoo, an entrepreneur and author; Sharan Hegde, a former analyst at the audit-and-consulting firm KPMG India; Rachana Ranade, a chartered accountant; and Akshat Shrivastava, a former partner at investment firm Next Edventures.
If the first generation of Indian finfluencers was armed with a background in business or finance, the new crop is free of such constraints.
Meanwhile, the government and regulators are taking note. “If there are three or four people giving objective advice, there are seven others out of 10 who are probably driven by some other considerations,” said said Times of India Beware of ponzi apps, finfluencers, says Finance minister Read more Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitaraman about the self-styled financial experts at a 23 March event in the southern Indian city of Bengaluru.
