Finfluencers in India: New paradigms of financial trust and authority.

Abstract

This paper explores the emerging trend of financial influencers on social media platforms in India. Finfluencers, as they are commonly known, are individuals on social media who use their educational and professional background, and the interactive features of the platforms, to disseminate financial information to large audiences. This author argues that the growth of Indian finfluencers on Instagram and YouTube over the last few years provides an avenue to explore how social media platforms allow for changing definitions of financial trust and authority. The demystification of the financial lexicon and institutions through finfluencers, therefore, is a lens through which people can understand how social media platforms allow for a shift in the way dominant economic paradigms in India are configured.