Robinhood gets rid of confetti features amid scrutiny over the gamification of investing

April 01, 2021:-Robinhood is redesigning some of its app features amid scrutiny over the popular stock trading company’s gamification of investing.

The free-stock trading pioneer, gearing up for its public debut, told CNBC the move to remove the “distraction” from its mission to “democratize” investing.

“In the past, we used the same confetti design to celebrate with customers, including customers’ first trades, their first steps with cash management, and successful friends and family referrals. Now, we introduce new, dynamic visual experiences that cheer up the customers through the milestones in their financial paths,” Robinhood said on Wednesday.

Robinhood, which is assumed as a gateway for young investors to access the markets, has lowered the entry barrier for millions of retail investors. The platform had at least 6 million users in January and February alone, according to SimilarWeb.

However, lawmakers and regulators have accused it of being reckless for making decisions involving real money.

The previous year, Massachusetts regulators filed a complaint against Robinhood, citing the company’s “aggressive tactics to attract inexperienced investors, its use of gamification strategies to manipulate customers, and its failure to prevent frequent outages and disruptions on its trading platform.”

“We’ve also heard the criticism, and we think that gets distracting when the focus shifts towards misconceptions, and that’s what starts defining what you’re doing,” Madhu Muthukumar, head of product management at Robinhood, told CNBC.

To combat the criticism, Robinhood is going with new imagery.

 Robinhood and other brokers restricted the trading of certain securities at the height of GameStop’s surge because of the increased capital requirements from clearinghouses.

It filed confidential paperwork last week to pursue an initial public offering.