Raynor de Best
Content expert covering payments and (crypto)currencies
Klarna - statistics & facts
Klarna's company figures for Q1 2023 reveal a continued push towards profitability, an issue that plagued them for several subsequent quarters. The issue became especially noticeable when Klarna's private-market valuation declined by 85 percent in 2022, amidst a layoff of 700 employees - 10 percent of the company's workforce - in the same year. Economic developments such as rising interest rates, the war in Ukraine, and the possibility of a worldwide recession impact the Swedish BNPL fintech. Consequently, Klarna recorded its largest-ever annual net loss in 2022 - a figure that did improve in Q1 2023. This raises the question of whether Klarna has a future going forward. Where is the payment method most popular, and in what direction is the BNPL company moving?
Klarna usage is highest in and around Sweden
Although the number of downloads of the Klarna app is highest in the United States - and the company mentions the U.S. is its biggest market in 2023 - downloads were relatively higher in Sweden, the rest of the Nordics, and Germany. The brand was available in all these countries as early as 2016, while the app arrived in the United States in November 2018. A global ranking from Statista's Consumer Insights on Klarna's penetration in either e-commerce or POS payments places the U.S. as the eighth country. Klarna's U.S. market has room to grow, even though it competes against domestic brands like Affirm or PayPal. Less than four out of 10 merchants in the United States that offered BNPL on their websites did so with the Swedish brand.Klarna and generative AI: The cooperation with ChatGPT
One option Klarna is exploring to differentiate itself from Affirm or PayPal is generative A.I. OpenAI announced in March 2023 that it selected Klarna as one of the first 12 companies to test an early version of ChatGTP's plug-in. Most retailers believed AI would improve operations and profitability. Klarna uses the tech for accurate product targeting, providing links for curated product recommendations while shopping. The move comes at a time when buy now, pay later as a product received criticism on how easy it is to pile up on debt. BNPL debt delinquency in the United States increased in early 2023, resulting in a decrease in credit scores for nearly one out of four U.S. adults. Regulators fear "loan stacking", a practice where consumers could take loans from different platforms simultaneously or even use credit cards to cover BNPL debt. The use of AI to predict favorite products and steer consumer behavior, they fear, could make this issue even more prominent.
