Gary Zhou 
Tesla is the world’s largest automaker by market cap, by far the world’s biggest seller of EVs, and surely the most talked-about and argued-over automaker in recent memory. Now the iconoclastic innovator has earned another superlative—according to a study by the financial comparison web site Money.co.uk, TSLA stock has been racking up the highest number of internet searches of any investment opportunity in the world (as reported by ValueWalk).
Of course, the fact that internet searchers are crazy about TSLA doesn’t mean it’s the world’s most popular investment, much less the best investment. What does it mean, exactly? For one thing, it highlights an ongoing trend: stock market investing is becoming more egalitarian, attracting more interest from middle-income earners, and these newcomers to the investing world tend to be interested in tech stocks, and EV stocks in particular.
Pandemic-related lockdowns and layoffs have accelerated this trend. People have been spending more time at home, and many have gotten into investing. According to ValueWalk, interest in investing soared by 57% during the pandemic time. Many of those who were fortunate enough not to need their government stimulus payments for living expenses chose to invest their “stimmies” in stocks. Meanwhile, a new crop of stock trading apps aimed at casual investors has made it easier than ever to play the market.
Tech and EV stocks have been in the headlines, and many have benefitted from the pandemic, so they have naturally attracted a huge amount of interest—stock-related searches for Zoom increased by over 1,500% during the lockdown months of February and March 2020. Other streaming- and media-related stocks have seen similar surges in interest, as have the shares of pharmaceutical companies such as Pfizer and AstraZeneca.
Electric vehicle stocks also rode the pandemic wave—most have since crashed back to earth. In terms of online interest, the big bananas in this space have been Tesla and Nio—both have seen big increases in searches for info about their stocks.
According to the Money.co.uk study, Tesla is the most-Googled investment opportunity, making up 15% of today’s stock market-related searches. It’s a global phenomenon—Tesla leads the search standings in 82 countries. Amazon and Apple rival Tesla in popularity, but don’t seem to have the same global appeal—the two tech giants accounted for 13% and 12% of global searches, respectively, and each dominated searches in 13 countries.
Original Publication by: Charles Morris; Source: Money.co.uk via ValueWalk
