A little light on the buying front, page-9

you're make some valid points but in my opinion miss a lot of the big picture too,

the point about a service that can be offered by a competitor can be made for almost any software/online tech listing from the last 5 years, the objective is to build a massive user-base/moat of retailers such that you get a real and lasting network effect - i'm sure you're familiar with the first mover advantage in tech.

for example, when new retailers come onto the afterpay system, management have said the majority see a solid double digit uptake in online sales almost immediately. this is a function of their existing user being alerted to a new store which accepts the payment method (the store directory page is one of the most popular on the site, as suggested by web analytics pages), and thus they have an immediate benefit to sell retailers on. you're right in that there is risk that someone larger comes in the near future and tries to push onto their turf, but at current growth rates, it won't be long before they hit a million users in australia. with such a large customer base and a proven network effect (look at comments from cue, princess polly and surfstitch and associated sales upticks/larger basket size for sales they saw), you think these retailers will ditch a proven sales driver with a massive customer base for someone with a fraction of the users and ability to push sales? there is the risk that they offer both but when these guys achieve scale, they will definitely have exclusivity as part of their contracts

so yes, i agree it is extremely high risk and i'm still wrapping my head around the merger and what the new entity will look like, but with the massive risk comes massive upside potential. they are already expanding into NZ in the middle of this year and i've seen some suggesting that a tie up with TCH might allow them to fast track into europe too. i agree that the revenue number looks lite although with the context (my own numbers) of it growing from 440k in july to ~$2m in dec, its the growth rate that is catching people's attention.