The Rise of E-Wallet Super-Apps and Buy-Now-Pay-Later
The rise of super-app digital wallets provides not only a conduit to banks but also internal payment options, including Buy-Now-Pay-Later (BNPL). We examine, for the first time, transactions matched with merchant and consumer information, from a leading e-wallet super-app, and complement the analyses with a randomized experiment. We document that BNPL serves as a dominant form of “digital cash” and expands payment and credit access to underserved consumers without increasing indebtedness or delinquencies despite their spending more. The findings crucially depend on the cross-sale capacity and inherent disciplinary incentives of super-app ecosystems. Our findings underscore the synergy between credit and payments and provide novel insights for economies transitioning to cashless via super-app-driven platforms, where FinTech credit sees the greatest potential.
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Copy CitationWenlong Bian, Lin William Cong, and Yang Ji, "The Rise of E-Wallet Super-Apps and Buy-Now-Pay-Later," NBER Working Paper 33178 (2024), https://doi.org/10.3386/w33178.
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