There is a lot of discussion on if APT has a moat. If the answer...

There is a lot of discussion on if APT has a moat. If the answer is yes, what is it?
I have been thinking about these two questions very hard. Afterpay must have a moat. For without having a one, Afterpay won’t be able to scale in all the markets without margin sacrifice. Having to adopt a different name in the UK can not slow down its massive growth. Without a moat, Visa and Mastercard would have started eating its lunch already.

So what is the moat? Ripple effect of customers, support from merchants, trend shift, flawless execution are all listed as the reasons for success. I feel these are the consequences, not the cause. The tangibles are usually easy to copy; a moat is something hard to replicate.

So what is it then? Well, I think it is the two founders. Because of these two guys, the company gained first-mover advantage, crafted a simple product strategy for fast scaling, built a brilliant team to execute, signed on star retailers, and reeled in world-class talents, and so on.

Afterpay has them, but other players don’t.