One of the major things that SPT seemed to have going for it once upon a time was that it has a patent. Something all the bulls thought was the 'golden cup' for SPT (including myself a long while ago).
But with fierce competition constantly joining the race with bigger and better products, has the patent officially been made worthless? My opinion is yes.
According to the Splitit website platform agreement, the patent is currently only protected in the U.S (since 2014). Other applications like the application in Australia have been REJECTED and lapsed.
Today, one of its competitors, zip, had a 'retail day' to try iron out some feelings of their investors. In doing so, they revealed that they will soon have a 'zip card' that will allow users to access 'pay in 4' via a card method amongst its many other methods.
As I understand it;
- The card can be used ANYWHERE, much like Visa and MasterCard credit/debit cards that SPT relies on.
- The 'pay in 4' process is automatic. Tap or slide the card and that all that needs to be done. No clunky options through the EFT machine like SPT.
- Does not rely on the shop being a 'merchant' to take advantage of the pay in 4 (again, used ANYWHERE, unlike SPT).
- Earn rewards just using it
BNPL is an idea to move AWAY from traditional banks and their credit cards. This will reduce SPT's potential client base as every day ticks over as it relies on those cards.
If zip has done this, the likes of Afterpay/Square, Klarna etc will likely do the same. PayPal has some rewards card which could be transformed too.
If the 'pay in 4' model can be done on another card, automatically, with no clunkiness to it...
Its obvious now that anyone can achieve the same result as SPT's (and far better) without infringing on the patent. This to me renders it useless.
So.. is the patent worth anything?
Curious on people's thoughts..
All IMO, DYOR of course.
