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Investment social media: what hit the headlines in 2021?

Richard Peterson
Richard Peterson
CEO of MarketPsych

Among the stories hitting the headlines in 2021 were the rise of social mobs, technological innovation and cryptocurrencies. Here, using Refinitiv MarketPsych Analytics, we review the year in investment social media trends. 


  1. In 2021, which industries and companies performed well based on investment social media sentiment?
  2. As cryptocurrencies continue to gain traction we look at where consumer trust lies.
  3. Continue your review of 2021 by using the suite of MarketPsych products in Eikon and Refinitiv Quantitative Analytics.

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The lists below are ranked based on the percentage of all business-relevant commentary about the company or cryptocurrency on the selected topic. For example, the #1 ranked ‘Artificial intelligence’ was the industry with the highest percentage of positive (versus negative) commentary in 2021.

In the second section, the technology company with the highest percentage of references to innovation was Spotify.

Positively viewed industries in 2021

When examining the sentiment expressed about 50 economic industries, the most positive commentary was about:

  1. Artificial intelligence
  2. Renewable energy
  3. Robotics
  4. Homebuilding & construction supplies (U.S.)
  5. Fintech

Technology innovation

The most innovative global technology companies in 2021, according to social media were:

  1. Spotify Technology SA
  2. Zomato Media Pvt Ltd
  3. CDW Corp
  4. Zscaler Inc
  5. ServiceNow Inc

Carbon emissions improvements

Sustainability was a big theme of 2021. Following on the COP26 meeting in Scotland, our metric of companies with the greatest carbon emissions improvement according to social media in 2021 were:

  1. Zoom Video Communications Inc
  2. Comcast Corp
  3. McAfee Corp
  4. Nordstrom Inc
  5. KPMG

Most loved retailers

Due to the pandemic, 2021 was another year of online shopping. The most loved consumer cyclical companies in 2021 according to social media were:

  1. JD Sports Fashion PLC
  2. Lazada Co Ltd
  3. Tegna Inc
  4. Videocon Industries Ltd
  5. Sodexo SA

Most trusted financial firms

The most trusted financial companies according to social media in 2021 were:

  1. AIG Inc
  2. ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Ltd
  3. Kemper Corp
  4. Unum Group
  5. Abrdn PLC

Top cryptocurrencies social sentiment

The highest social sentiment among cryptocurrencies was expressed for:

  1. Divi
  2. Elrond
  3. Algorand
  4. Hedera Hashgraph
  5. Zilliqa

Divi looks to make using cryptocurrencies a simple, frictionless task, helping to make digital assets more accessible to everyday users. And Elrond is a blockchain protocol that seeks to offer extremely fast transaction speeds by using sharding.

Meawhile, Algorand is a self-sustaining, decentralised, blockchain-based network that supports a wide range of applications.

Best code sentiment among cryptocurrencies

The highest code sentiment among cryptocurrencies was expressed for:

  1. iExec RLC
  2. NEM
  3. Chiliz
  4. Band Protocol
  5. Synthetix

iExec RLC is used to organise a market network where people can monetise their computing power, as well as applications and even datasets.

NEM (New Economy Movement) is an ecosystem of platforms that use blockchain and cryptography to provide solutions for businesses and individuals. Chiliz, meanwhile, enables users to participate in the governance of their favourite sports brands.

The lists above capture the averaged views of social media commentators over the course of 2021. These are not forecasts or investment recommendations. We published these to call attention to the fascinating insights that can be gained from media analytics.

Such data can also be used to develop uncorrelated predictive models, as we have shown with our successful StarMine MarketPsych Media Sentiment model.

Learn more about Refinitiv MarketPsych Analytics and Refinitiv MarketPsych ESG.