Listing competition like it is a bad thing, when you go to Coles...

Listing competition like it is a bad thing, when you go to Coles and look down the bread aisle do you only see one brand? Where there is a market there is competition that is beyond obvious.

What do I know about the competition? Well ATOME for starters, privately owned and is apart of the Advance AI group out of Singapore, it also has a large "war chest" of funding reaching from investment groups out of Japan and China including groups aligned with the CCP. It's marketing methods have Chinese money written all over it. Which is pay your way through brute force and brand saturation. Large continuous advertising campaigns, constant "sponsored" articles and partnerships with big money groups. Can't fight that, they are in the race but that doesn't make their product any different or better. They offer standard repayment options and are essentially approaching it like a credit card. Their target demographic seems to be anyone with eyes and they will definitely have their piece of the pie.

HOOLAH? Another Singapore based fintech company branching out to Malaysia which has had great success across the board, offering the standard 3 installments over 3 months. Keeping in mind when it moved over it had an undisclosed 8 figure capital injection by ICM which is a private equity firm based out of Bermuda full of some heavy hitting international $$. They clearly want a piece of the BNPL too. Recently bought out by Shopback to integrate with their product. Their late fees are known to be quite high comparatively and although it's established in Singapore it is still gaining traction in Malaysia. Similar to IOU in many ways it is also not far off comparatively, boasting off 300 merchants across Malaysia in February and most recently of 2000 across Sg, HK & My. Doesn't seem to have the same approach of bombardment in advertising but definitely has a presence and is pretty well known.

Whats next? Ok Pinelabs, everyone knows is India's entry into the market. Indian company, Indian money and hungry to expand. Already very well established in India with complete monopoly over the offline BNPL sector. Their single POS machines are used all across India and also through parts of SEA to a lesser degree. They are looking to expand into the US and have their finger in every pie possible, which makes Malaysia an obvious target and their purchase of FAVE earlier this year highlights that. There is a big difference with what pinelabs is offering though, it doesn't just pose as a BNPL threat, it wants everything, a full commerce platform provided by them. They are everywhere and their brand recognition within india and its communities is massive what that means in Malaysia who knows. They have already partnered with ATOME and are making big moves. BUT that isn't an exclusive partnership and their CEO has already said they look to add 3-4 more BNPL options.

I don't have time to list every single option but these are a few that are constantly spammed across this forum lately. These companies are not a secret and IOU would be well aware of them. This also ties into IOU's approach, with a local brand ambassador, their focused local social media marketing and even the IDSB deal. The other companies have pushed their way into the market with money, IOU has approached it very differently. It knows how to deal with Malay people simply because it is being run by predominately Malaysians, specifically within the fintech field with the CEO being with IPAY88 for nearly 10 years prior.

If any of these larger companies wanted access to the black book of clients that IDSB has now, do you think they could just buy it? I also don't see any deals prior to IOU's with RMS which is being rolled out this month. The figures from the last quarterly were all positive and were all prior to deals made with the 3 flagship companies announced in the activities. Which I am guessing is why they are eager to do a mid quarterly because they couldn't include it in the last one. Whether people like it or not IOU has a foothold already in Malaysia and if the big boys want that piece they will have to either pay their way in or risk letting it grow.

Not the most vetted research so take with a grain of salt.
/rant