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These buy now pay later companies are going gangbusters. How do they all survive when they essentially do the same thing? Isn't it becoming a commodity? What's

These buy now pay later companies are going gangbusters. How do they all survive when they essentially do the same thing? Isn't it becoming a commodity? What's to stop Citi or any other traditional bank from adding this feature to their arsenal? Like telehealth being relatively easy to spin up today with tools like Wheel and Twilio - are the margins in this here game the moves? Are these pay later companies _owned_ by incumbent banks and just rebrands? Or is it just sign of the times in todays startup space?

cube00 5y ago
Banks can't replicate these services because they are regulated and would be prohibited from lending to some of the customers based on their credit history. If you can't afford to pay $35-1,000 upfront, the rest of your financial situation would be pretty grim. These companies are trying to dodge regulation claiming they're "self regulating", if they don't succeed in pushing that narrative then the party's over. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-09-03/buy-now-pay-later-regulation-fintech-senate-inquiry/12614068 https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-09-03/buy-now-pay-later-reg...