Tougher times ahead? Visa & Mastercard see revenue growth slowing down 📉; Google started rolling out a feature that could kill a hundred FinTech startups 🤯; Can Web3 disrupt the music industry? 🎶

FinTech is Eating the World, 9 February

Hey Everyone,

Good morning! Due to some issues, the newsletter is coming out later. But it’s absolutely worth the wait as today we’re looking at Visa’s & Mastercard’s latest results that show revenue growth slowing down (what it means, what’s ahead & some solid bonus reads on both Visa & MC), Google which started rolling out a feature that could kill a hundred FinTech startups (watch this out!), and question whether Web3 can disrupt the music industry. Let’s jump straight into the awesome stuff 🌶

Tougher times ahead? Visa and Mastercard see revenue growth slowing down 📉

Following the money 💸 Card network giants Visa V 0.00%↑ and Mastercard MA 0.00%↑ recently posted their latest earnings. Apart from some interesting takeaways, both behemoths have one theme in common - slowing revenue growth.

Let’s take a closer look at their performance.

More on this 👉 Here are the key things to know from their latest quarter:

Visa. Payments volume grew 7% year over year (YoY) in its fiscal Q1 2023 (ended December 31, 2022). This is a slowdown from the post-lockdown 20% YoY increase in the same period a year ago. In a similar vein, Visa’s cross-border volume jumped 22% YoY during the quarter, down from 40% the year before. 3 things that drove this performance:

• Issuer and FinTech partnerships (renewed deals with Bank of America, Capital One, and Commerce Bank & Visa’s co-brand agreement with India-based e-commerce giant Flipkart).

• Travel (domestic US travel surged 84% YoY during the period + Visa’s co-brand deals with 3 major travel deals with Qatar Airways, Southwest Airlines, and Star Alliance).

• Growth in value-added services (Visa Direct, Cybersource, its fraud detection solution, contributed $1.7B in revenues during Visa’s Q1, up more than 20% YoY on a constant currency basis).

Mastercard. Mastercard’s gross payment volume (GPV) grew 8% year over year (YoY) in Q4 2022, slowing from the post-lockdown 23% YoY increase from the same period in 2021. 3 things that drove this performance:

• Travel spending (pent-up travel demand led to cross-border volume surging 31% while domestic flights increased 84% YoY in Q4).

• Holiday shopping (US retail and e-commerce holiday sales grew 7% YoY and hit $1.297 trillion in 2022).

• Partnerships (Mastercard teamed up with several companies to enhance its card offerings in Q4, including a partnership with McAfee).

What does it tell us? 🤔 Looking at the results of Visa & Mastercard is like looking at a macro compass that provides you with unique and primary insights. Here’s the takeaway and what lies ahead (+some solid bonus reads on both Visa & Mastercard):