>From where I sit you are deliberately missing the obvious. With respect, that's because you're missing the obvious.
The reports do not differentiate between opex and capex. Software development is capex! The API's and website integrations etc are all a tangible thing, just as an example.
You can't reasonably claim all of the spending is necessary for ongoing operations particularly when they continually announce new deals which naturally come with a cost. Like.. when they deals are all done, when all the API's are complete, what will the expenses be? We can't know.
>you’ll see how personnel-heavy their approach is. Again, your assumption is they're permanent employees but that assumption runs on the idea that they will never stop doing new deals. They'll run out of companies to make deals with eventually, won't they?
> Otherwise, your thesis is “they’re not there for BNPL, they’re working on some other secret sauce we don’t know about”. Which one is it, honestly? Being SEA's biggest digital transaction processor. Says right there on the box. BNPL is part of that plan. It has good consumer curb appeal, therein lies its main benefit.
"Hey make an agreement to do financial transactions with us, IOUpay Asia!" why? "We have BNPL which will increase your business!"
Afterpay is a marketing exercise too. Note how much money they've actually made on their BNPL product. With scale comes marketing info, but IOU is not the same as Afterpay in actual goals.
>I can only think you determinedly tell yourself this line about IOU not focusing on BNPL, Do they spend money on dev or putting it into the BNPL book? Did they buy IDSB or put that capital into the BNPL book? Would it be possible for them to get some type of funding, yes, absolutely, but as you rightly point out it would be a pointless cost and require self-destructive levels of growth.
I can only assume that they are as smart as you are and have worked this out already.
Which leads me to conclude BNPL isn't really there for a revenue stream.
>because you’re perhaps one of the few holders who has run the numbers and realised that in the current credit/debt markets, their BNPL is doomed without enormous scale. All BNPL is doomed and becomes more doomed with scale. The on paper numbers look really great when you consider the potential churn cycle, but unfortunately with scale comes bad debts, inevitably, in all cases, without exception. I wouldn't still be holding if I thought this was a company focused on making money through BNPL.
IOU Price at posting:
5.6¢ Sentiment: Hold Disclosure: Held
(20min delay)