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Square to acquire Afterpay for $29B

squareup.com

11–20 of 360 posts

Re: Square to acquire Afterpay for $29B

#11
I have noticed that there isn't a lot of chatter on HN about Square. But on closer inspection it is a fascinating success story. They are building and cornering a whole ecosystem there. And their valuation is remarkable. Not just hype, but execution. Kudos to them.

Between them and Stripe, it's nice to have something in payments to admire and be excited about.

I remember a time when we had to deal directly with Authorize.net, wow that was a mess!

Re: Square to acquire Afterpay for $29B

#15
post #9

Ok so Square has opted to engage in predatory practices. Noted.

I'm completely out of the loop here but plan to integrate Stripe into a new product. Can you elaborate?

I think he’s saying that these big entrenched players immediately buy up any competition or threats.

Meaning this isn’t really any sort of free market, if you are so large you can absorb or destroy smaller entities ensuring that you will always be the leader in your market. And because governments have no teeth when it comes to monopolies or anti-competition this skates by world wide.

That was my read, could be wrong.

Re: Square to acquire Afterpay for $29B

#17
post #9

Ok so Square has opted to engage in predatory practices. Noted.

I'm completely out of the loop here but plan to integrate Stripe into a new product. Can you elaborate?

Afterpay is a buy now, pay later scheme. It's literally a loan shark service. 25% of their revenue comes from late fees.

"The Australian Securities and Investments Commission found one in five buy now, pay later users is missing payments, half of users aged between 18 to 29 cut back on essential items to make repayments, and more than 1.1 million transactions in 2019 incurred multiple missed payment fees.

It also warned 15 per cent of users, and half under 29, had taken out an additional loan to pay for the services, while 55 per cent of consumers paying late had used at least two different buy now, pay later providers in the past six months."

https://www.afr.com/companies/financial-services/one-in-five...

Re: Square to acquire Afterpay for $29B

#18
Horrible. People ought to know enough to not use these products in the first place, but people will use it anyway. They should be required to show the long term effects before being used, much like the gore packaging used on cigarettes in some places. What’s the financial equivalent of lung cancer or having a stoma?

Re: Square to acquire Afterpay for $29B

#19

How does Afterpay make money if they do not charge interest?

~25% of their revenue comes from late fees to consumers. 75% from merchants. They're your standard loan shark predator disguised with flashy marketing and bankrolled by VCs.

Given that:

- their late fees are capped - there is zero interest charge - they have a policy of never taking legal action to pursue payment - non-payments don't affect your credit rating

On what is your argument based? There is literally nothing in common.

Re: Square to acquire Afterpay for $29B

#20
As a customer are there any downsides to using these BNPL platforms when I'm buying something? I generally never buy anything online that I can't afford to pay for it outright so I have never used them before.
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