If you haven’t already, could you please take this survey?  Thank you!https://www.surveymonkey.de/r/MY6XRPR Digital wallets beg to break free from the commerce platforms that nurture them. In 2002, a $20bn eBay acquired PayPal for $1.5bn.  Nearly 20 years later, a $200bn+ PayPal commands 5x eBay’s market cap.  The core value prop hasn’t changed much over this [...]

If you found yourself in 2009 with the vision of one day dominating payments, where would you start?  For most, I suspect it would be P2P payments or point-of-sale software or some other bits-based service with the conventional trappings of network effects, virality and scale.  Square instead launched with what must have seemed the most [...]

[PYPL – PayPal] From its origins in peer-to-peer transfers, PayPal has evolved into the ubiquitous online payment gateway that it is today.  Consumers use PayPal because it is a secure, reliable, and fast payment method that is widely accepted by merchants; merchants accept PayPal because it eases checkout friction for ~240mn potential customers, converting 90% [...]

[SPGI – S&P Global, MSCI – MSCI Inc.] New indices are created every day as passive strategies flourish and investors invent ways to track exposures across asset classes, geographies, sectors, and market caps.  They are stamped with the imprimatur of a well-known provider, validated with fresh pools of capital, and before long, become indispensable benchmarks or [...]