Square Buys Afterpay: What You Need to Know
Square's (NYSE: SQ) plans to acquire Australian fintech Afterpay sent the U.S. digital payments giant's stock up more than 10% on Monday. Square is making a big bet on the "buy now, pay later" (BNPL) company, which began its expansion into the U.S. in 2018 and now earns almost half its revenue in the States.
Afterpay is one of the pioneers of the BNPL trend, which has exploded in popularity with younger shoppers. Founded in 2015, the company now has over 16.2 million users globally and allows consumers to finance small purchases (usually less than $1,000) through participating merchants, with no credit checks or interest charges. The model has taken share from traditional credit cards, prompting many big banks and payments providers to create their own iterations of BNPL.
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Source Fool.com
