Square to acquire Afterpay for $29B • Hacker News Board

Re: Square to acquire Afterpay for $29B

#41

Post by SV_BubbleTime » Sun, Aug 01, 2021, 11:11 PM UTC

neximo64 wrote: post #14

Now square has access to basically a checkout page for a good proportion to the online web out there.

If anyone was following the news about PayPal working with ADL to stop wrong thinkers having accessing payments/receipts, erm “Fight Extremism” (great until your views are considered extreme, and if you don’t think that’s possible consider a talk with your 10 year ago self about vaccine passports or forced vaccination or trans athletes or border/immigration or canceling comedians or ending the filibuster, etc)… I don’t think I can support anyone having even remotely strong market dominance anywhere for payments. [0]

Maybe Stripe can just process payments, but who knows because “silence is violence” now. They did ban the Trump Store after the 11/6 fiasco [1] despite nothing on the store breaking any TOS or referencing the capital riot, just a broader “This guy is bad news!” condition they could/would/should have used at any time.

[0] https://thefederalist.com/2021/07/26/paypal-is-conspiring-wi...

[1] https://www.wsj.com/articles/stripe-stops-processing-payment...

Re: Square to acquire Afterpay for $29B

#42

Post by [deleted] » Sun, Aug 01, 2021, 11:11 PM UTC

chirau wrote: post #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 Autho…

[deleted]

Re: Square to acquire Afterpay for $29B

#43

Post by geoffpado » Sun, Aug 01, 2021, 11:11 PM UTC

junon wrote: post #9

treelovinhippie wrote: post #7

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?

Other people have replied to the predatory practices thing, but additionally I'm not sure if it's a misread, typo, etc., but Stripe != Square.

Re: Square to acquire Afterpay for $29B

#44

Post by version_five » Sun, Aug 01, 2021, 11:11 PM UTC

treelovinhippie wrote: post #23

Square is buying a loan shark service. "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 p…

From "Margin Call (2011)" - context is a subprime investment banker explaining how he justifies doing what he does:

> People wanna live like this in their cars and big fuckin' houses they can't even pay for, then you're necessary. The only reason that they all get to continue living like kings is cause we got our fingers on the scales in their favor. I take my hand off and then the whole world gets really fuckin' fair really fuckin' quickly and nobody actually wants that. They say they do but they don't. They want what we have to give them but they also wanna, you know, play innocent and pretend they have no idea where it came from.

This is fulfilling a demand, it's one I don't agree with either, and think we'd be better off without, but people are asking for it. At least it's a legit company doing it and not a mobster or money launderer.

Re: Square to acquire Afterpay for $29B

#45

Post by pdog » Sun, Aug 01, 2021, 11:11 PM UTC

Gatsky wrote: post #38

pylon wrote: post #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.

> I generally never buy anything online that I can't afford to pay for it outright so I have never used them before. They are designed to let people buy impulsively without annoying restrictions like not having enough money. Who would have though this was either an addressable market or a good idea. I don't get why they are so popular either, or worth this much. They also don't have any moat - any payment provider ca…

Isn't that what a credit card is for? Or is it somehow different?

Re: Square to acquire Afterpay for $29B

#46

Post by RichEO » Sun, Aug 01, 2021, 11:12 PM UTC

scrollaway wrote: post #5

azemetre wrote: post #2

Kinda amazed at how different the leadership is between Square and Twitter under Dorsey. You can tell which company he is spending most of his time with and which one is getting neglected.

You can? ... Which is which? Because I genuinely can't.

It’s Twitter

Re: Square to acquire Afterpay for $29B

#47

Post by BugsJustFindMe » Sun, Aug 01, 2021, 11:13 PM UTC

Every time I see one of these announcements, the valuations go up and up and up and up. I remember not long ago being wowed by a 1B acquisition. That was called a unicorn because of how incredible it was. And now we're at 29B. Is this just because money is all a joke?

Re: Square to acquire Afterpay for $29B

#48

Post by extr » Sun, Aug 01, 2021, 11:13 PM UTC

treelovinhippie wrote: post #23

Square is buying a loan shark service. "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 p…

Yes, these new POS financing companies are not good. I briefly worked for one before fully understanding what kind of businesses they are and how they make their money. They may put a pretty face on things but their financials look nothing like a "regular" startup, it's rebranded high APR loans.

Re: Square to acquire Afterpay for $29B

#49

Post by AussieWog93 » Sun, Aug 01, 2021, 11:14 PM UTC

toomuchtodo wrote: post #4

misiti3780 wrote: post #3

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

Merchant fee (same as paid by a merchant when accepting a CC) which subsidizes the zero percent financing payment plan to the consumer.

Just to expand upon what the parent said, their fee is significantly higher than the companies that just process credit cards (around 6% compared to the industry standard rate of 2.9%).

I believe they eat the loss when the customer defaults, though.

Re: Square to acquire Afterpay for $29B

#50

Post by phist_mcgee » Sun, Aug 01, 2021, 11:14 PM UTC

benmanns wrote: post #27

pylon wrote: post #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.

You might miss out on some credit card rewards or protections (chargebacks, extended warranties, extended return periods, etc).

Trickily, BNPL is pushed as 'not credit', which I find deeply disingenuous. The product they push is utilised by compulsive spenders, or poorer people. These people have always used credit, much to their collective disadvantage. Branding it as 'like lay-by, free up your cashflow' is in my opinion a dangerous option for many people.