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Futu runs online stock trading apps that let everyday people in Asia buy stocks, funds, and other investments.
Futu is an online broker — a digital middleman that lets ordinary people buy and sell stocks, funds, and other investments from their phones instead of walking into a bank branch. It runs two main trading apps: Futubull, which serves Chinese-speaking investors, and Moomoo, which serves users across markets like the US, Singapore, Australia, Malaysia, Japan, and Canada.
Here is the basic problem Futu solves. For decades, trading stocks in Asia meant dealing with traditional brokers who charged high fees, offered clunky software, and kept markets closed to regular people. Futu built slick apps that let anyone open an account in minutes and trade stocks, options, and funds, mostly in the US and Hong Kong markets, at low or zero commission. That low-cost, easy-to-use approach is why customers pick it over an old-school bank broker. The money does not come mainly from trading commissions, which are now tiny or free. Futu earns from several sides: interest income on the cash customers leave sitting in their accounts (this is now its biggest money-maker), margin lending where it lends customers money to trade with, and fees from things like currency exchange and options trading. In the first half of 2025, the company reported revenue that grew roughly 60% year over year, driven heavily by the interest income and growing customer assets. Its rivals in Asia include Interactive Brokers and Charles Schwab-style low-cost brokers, plus local banks. Futu's users mostly come from China, though it has been expanding overseas aggressively through Moomoo. It reported around 2.7 million paying clients as its funded accounts grew rapidly. The company is headquartered in Hong Kong, which matters because a large chunk of its business serves Greater China investors. It also runs a corporate business providing stock data and IPO subscription services for companies.
One important risk: China's regulators have tightened rules on online brokers serving mainland investors, and there were reports Chinese regulators wanted Futu to pull back from marketing to mainland clients. That regulatory cloud explains why the overseas expansion push matters so much — the apps that once relied on mainland Chinese users now depend on winning customers in new countries. For investors, it is a fast-growing, high-margin business, but one with the looming risk that China could clamp down further on the home base that made it big.
Saved answer · last researched 15 Nov 2026