An Australian company that offers a ‘buy now, pay later’ service called Afterpay is going to be acquired by Square. Afterpay allows you to purchase things in installment and that too without any interest. The acquisition will be made by buying stocks worth $29 billion in Afterpay by Square. Square has recently bought a major share in the Tidal streaming service also and has announced a Bitcoin business unit.
These types of interest-free, installment-based services are increasingly favoured by users and are offered by Afterpay, Affirm, and Klarna. Apple is also improving its payments app Apple Pay with a similar feature. This will be called “Apple Pay Later”.
Afterpay has a customer base of 16 million users and almost 100,000 merchants across the world. The transaction is expected to be closed by the first quarter of 2022. After the acquisition, Square’s board will be joined by an Afterpay director. Square co-founder and CEO Jack Dorsey told in a statement that both the companies share the same purpose. He added that “Together, we can better connect our Cash App and Seller ecosystems to deliver even more compelling products and services for merchants and consumers, putting the power back in their hands.”
