ASX investors are getting excited about the share prices of buy now, pay later businesses Afterpay Touch Group Ltd (ASX: APT), Splitit Ltd (ASX: SPT) and Zip Co Ltd (ASX: Z1P) a lot higher today.
The Afterpay share price is up by 3.25%.
The Splitit share price has gone up by 14.6%.
The Zip Co share price has risen by 3.1%.
The only one of the three to actually release any news this week has been Splitit, which announced yesterday that it has formed a three-year partnership agreement with GHL ePayments to offer Splitit's instalment service to more than 2,000 online merchants in Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines.
Obviously this could be an important deal for Splitit over time, the business still in the early phases of its growth and reaching as many merchants as possible as soon as possible will help it achieve critical mass, attract larger partners and reach breakeven.
The main question in my mind these days is the sustainability of the current business models. There is a growing number of competitors all offering similar services, including options provided by Visa, MasterCard and PayPal.
A higher percentage of Afterpay's earnings these days is coming from repeat customers and less from late fees. Whilst it's great that Afterpay's customers aren't getting into as much trouble in percentage terms, retailers may be wondering why they're paying so much to Afterpay just for the same customers and not for winning new ones.
Foolish takeaway
Out of Afterpay, Zip and Splitit, I'm not sure which one is the best buy. I'm personally not buying any of them – I think there's too much excitement surrounding the sector. Afterpay may well prove to be a large winner if it does well in the USA and UK, I just don't like that type of bet.
