Looking for sensible explanation, page-6

From my understanding:

So afterpay has to buy the goods/services on behalf of the consumer directly, then if and only if the consumer doesn't pay the full amount in 4 stages then Afterpay makes money from the consumers poor money management via a premium interest rate on lending.

So straight away there is costs for Afterpay, over the Xmas period it must have laid out an enormous sum (hence the loss quoted today)

in addition, Afterpay, from my understanding can charge retailers a small fee for the privilege of using Afterpay as a "retainer" almost, which brings some income in return for attracting more consumers in to the store to help manage payments on goods, but as above, Afterpay pay the full invoice to the store straight up and hope consumers can't make the payments (this is why the senate were debating the ethics of this company)

Another reason I think this red today has come from the early birds sitting on a chunky profit are selling into a buying frenzy as the clueless mums and dads try to buy and make a quick buck because they've seen APT advertised everywhere. I almost fell into the latter.