This is a very important announcement - the morons who say no one uses Edge and oh it's only 150 million active users can spare us the C-grade high school level analysis. There's a number of major strategic elements which I'm not surprised are not being discussed in more detail only 3hrs after it's released:
- Microsoft, like the other major browser developers are all trying to develop the ecommerce functionality within their browsers - here are just a couple of references to their latest updates:
https://www. techradar.com/au/news/microsoft-edge-thinks-it-can-dramatically-improving-online-shoppinghttps:// mspoweruser.com/microsoft-edge-shopping-features-tab-groups/The announcement didn't have a lot of detail, but if Zip integrates into MS Edge's shopping experience and is offered as the default BNPL option in their shopping features, that is huge. MS can push these updates to all existing Edge installations and then included on all new devices sold with Windows, starting with the US. My guess is they'll look to have this live before Black Friday/Cyber Monday and Christmas shopping. This goes back to what we were discussing the other day, with Zip potentially powering the BNPL functionality of major partners, like ADIB with Spotii. It also helps explain the global rebrand - Microsoft would need a single brand - they would not have integrated Quadpay in US, Zip in Aus, Spotii in UAE and Twisto in Europe, it's a mess. People should also take note of what Microsoft is trying to do - the fact they even have a 'shopping experience' in their browser shows the moves they're trying to make to offer full ecommerce functionality, including payments (i.e. BNPL) right there in the browser. It's exciting to be partnered with one of the big 3 tech companies that have mainstream browsers.
- This partnership will provide significant credibility to LD over in the US right now - I mean just picture him walking into his meetings Thurs morn US time after this has dropped. This will get more attention in the US, particularly given the heightened awareness for BNPL. I'm not familiar with the Microsoft corporate structure, but an integration into their Edge brower, starting in US, thus implying global reach, would have been negotiated and signed off at the very highest levels. This is exactly where we want to be.
I've updated my table I'm using to track these next few months - I've included the ZestMoney investment because I think that will add a lot of strategic value and could prob 10x in the medium term at their growth rates.
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| 1 | Product partnership | Integration into MS Edge - potential for Zip to power BNPL payment option for MS | Y |
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| 2 | Product partnership x 2 | E.g. Goldman Sachs for savings accounts and longer duration loan products |
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| 3 | Product partnership x 3 | E.g. Coinbase to power crypto functionality |
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| 4 | Enterprise retailer partnerships | Pilots currently in place - awaiting outcomes |
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| 5 | Strategic investor/s | Either from on-market purchases or minor share issuances, or both |
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| 6 | Major strategic investment | Equity investment in ZestMoney (India) | Y |
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So why hasn't the stock price gone nuts? For the simple fact the share registry is completely broken - that Top 20 in the report yesterday was an absolute disgrace - LD & PG collectively only own about 10% and there are no obvious friendly names listed anywhere there - i.e. long-term instos or strategic investors. If they can fix that, the upside to this one is nothing short of tremendous, but that's not going to be easy.
(20min delay)