The story of Apple Pay Later, a short-lived BNPL service

What is buy now, pay later?

The buy now, pay later industry allows consumers to buy something immediately and pay in installments, typically without the need for applications or credit scores associated with credit cards. BNPL has boomed in the last decade, led by fintech companies Affirm, Klarna, and Afterpay, which have targeted young adults. Some critics say BNPL is a reinvented version of payday loans that allow borrowers easy access to cash with relatively few barriers.

Affirm's COO recently said that the company believes the credit card is 'going the way of the VHS tape'

Some people use buy now, pay later apps as an alternative to credit cards. BNPL services have a lower barrier to entry than credit cards—many frequent BNPL users have low credit scores.

BNPL companies typically make money via merchant fees rather than interest

When a merchant partners with a buy now, pay later app, consumers are more likely to spend more money with that merchant—meaning that the merchant is willing to pay a small fee in exchange for the ability for customers to pay with buy now, pay later.

BNPL has 19th-century roots, but the pandemic made it mainstream

The modern BNPL model didn't take off until the COVID-19 pandemic, when consumers were stuck at home and lockdowns forced them to shop online rather than in person. The number of US BNPL loans grew more than tenfold from 2019 (16.8 million) to 2021 (180 million), according to a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau report.

Over 25% of Americans regret using BNPL due to unexpected costs

Almost 24% of buy now, pay later users have missed payments, with younger users (32% of 18- to 29-year-olds) being more likely to fall behind on payments than their older counterparts. (Only 12% of adults age 60 or over had done the same.)

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is looking closely at BNPL

Given the lack of data around BNPL services in comparison to other financial products such as credit cards, the CFPB has conducted research to better understand BNPL products and how they could harm and benefit consumers.

Gap and Sephora now accept BNPL, despite paying up to 8% per sale

Despite these merchants paying roughly 2% to 8% of each sale's cost (more than they pay for most credit card processing fees), they're signing on, in part, because BNPL can help them improve their conversion rates at checkout.

The story of Klarna's IPO

BNPY company Klarna went public on the NYSE in September 2025, roughly 20 years after it was founded. At the time, Klarna made roughly three-quarters of its revenue via merchant fees, charging a small premium for each purchase.

Apple Pay is activated on more than 78% of US iPhones

As a result, some banks worry they could be losing ground to the tech company. As consumers continue to use Apple Pay instead of pulling out their physical debit card to pay for everyday items, some banks are fighting back in the digital wallet war.

Explore a visual timeline of fintech’s history and growth

From the debut of the world’s first ATM in 1967, to Apple Pay launching in 2014, financial technologies have come a very long way in a relatively short historical period. A colorful visual timeline highlights some of the most important milestones along the way.

Some argue that advance payday apps aren't markedly different from payday loans

Some apps, like EarnIn, allow users to get money from their paycheck in advance. These apps access users' banking information, allowing the company to immediately take back any borrowed money and track users' financial situations to evaluate their risk. Unlike traditional payday lenders, these apps often waive the right to sue users who don't pay back the initial principal and don't charge interest, but rather ask users for a tip. (Some users may experience a paywall.)

PayPal was started in 1998 by Peter Thiel

By the year 2002, PayPal went public for the first time—but that was far from the end of its business story. eBay later bought PayPal, then eventually spun it off. PayPal IPO’d for a second time in 2015.

In 2025, American Express paid $230M to settle fraud and deceptive marketing charges

American Express launched a wire payment service targeted at small businesses and falsely touted the service as a tax-deductible business expense in 2018. American Express was also accused of allowing small businesses to open corporate credit cards without the necessary employer identification number (EIN).

Macy’s announced a series of pandemic-era store closures in January 2021

Specifically, as mall foot traffic declined, Macy’s sought to grow elsewhere (as did many other retailers around the same time).

Apple started out in a garage in 1976

Shifting the focus of personal computing from businesses to everyday consumers, Apple found early success with the Apple II, which sold 6 million units, and the Macintosh, which featured a user-friendly graphical interface.

The 2024 Synapse collapse took $90M of people’s life savings with it

In 2024, a banking middleman called Synapse declared bankruptcy. Unfortunately, it also locked roughly 100,000 Americans out of their own money, which prompted a class action lawsuit.

Nike made retailers pay for Air Jordans upfront to guarantee stock

Instead of paying for the inventory sold, Knight locked retailers into iron-clad agreements, where the companies would pay upfront for Nike inventory (but at a 7% discount). Knight did this to leverage debt, allowing retailers a better chance at getting the wildly popular Air Jordans.

WeWork, once a unicorn, declared bankruptcy in 2023

This podcast episode chronicles the complete rise and fall of WeWork—from its founding in 2010 to its eventual 2023 bankruptcy.

Meet a payday lender who tried to fight the industry

Phil Locke once ran more than 40 payday lending stores in Michigan before walking away from lending in 2012. Locke left because he said he felt guilty about being a predatory lender. He tried to become a consumer protection advocate and influence reform, but ended up returning to the industry. (Some users may experience an email wall.)

The overnight collapse of Ello, a beloved, decade-old social network

Ello launched in 2014 with big dreams to avoid advertising and retain a user-friendly, simple style. But in 2023, the hip social network suddenly shut down, removing nine years of posts with no warning. Artists, writers, and other creators lost nearly a decade of work with no explanation. Read the troubling story here.

Special-purpose acquisition companies let companies skirt the IPO process

A video explains how private companies have taken advantage of this loophole, why investing in these companies isn’t always a good idea, and how blank-check companies (as they’re commonly called) work.

The 2022 best picture winner, 'CODA,' was an Apple+ original

Streaming has changed more than how we watch movies—it's changed the way we recognize them during awards season. When movie theaters shut down during the early days of the pandemic, studios had no choice but to release their films on streaming. Once the shift occurred, there was no going back.

More than 400 investors turned Peloton down in its initial funding rounds

Peloton founder John Foley said investors rejected the company's initial funding requests because there was no clear indication of what the market for at-home fitness classes looked like. Ultimately, more than 200 angel investors gave the company its first round of cash. (Some users may experience a paywall.)

'Planet Money' explains how Temu became one of the most downloaded apps in the US

According to some estimates, as of 2024, Temu was shipping as many as a million packages a day into the US, and was among of the most downloaded iPhone apps in the country with around 50 million monthly active users.

The TikTok sale went through in January 2026

The app's ownership is now majority American, though TikTok CEO Shou Chew, who is Chinese, remains on the board of directors. It's unclear what, if anything, has changed for American users, as the company has historically kept the specifics of its algorithm a secret.

Netflix profits when you're not watching, and its movies are designed that way—read a detail-rich critical essay exposing lesser-known Netflix takes

A vending machine run with Anthropic's AI went out of business after it was convinced to give away items for free and sell a video game console.

US consumers collectively owe more than $1T to credit card companies—almost as much as they owe in auto loans.

Telehealth demand for GLP-1s for weight loss is booming as consumers seek easier access.

In 2025, four executives from large tech companies were given positions in the US Army Reserves—including Palantir Chief Technology Officer Shyam Sankar, which reinforced Palantir's ties with the US military and its role as a leading defense partner.

How Amazon operates a 'flywheel' business model, a self-reinforcing cycle that drives continuous growth

The name 'Silicon Valley' arose from the founding of Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory in Fairchild Semiconductor in 1956-57, founded near Stanford University in Palo Alto

An initial public offering or 'IPO' is the process of a private company becoming public by putting shares of the company on the stock market for purchase.

Domino's Pizza's 30-minute delivery guarantee was responsible for the chain's 1980s surge, but it was discontinued after the company was found liable for delivery driver accidents.

The Beatles' US label rejected the band's first two singles, 'Please Please Me' and 'From Me to You,' with one executive calling the band 'dead in the water.'

In 2019, a laptop loaded with six of the worst malware in history and described as 'an exhibit of historical weaponry' sold for $1.3M.

Watch this video that uses Lego bricks to explain how venture capital works.

About 2,000 US babies are born annually without some portion of their limbs, potentially leading to a lifetime of pricey prosthetics.

Hear about the 250-year history of the United States Postal Service, complete with some of its strangest deliveries, important innovations, and the figures that made it an American institution.

When a Paris department store hesitated to sell Estée Lauder's perfume, she 'accidentally' broke a bottle, causing the smell to spread throughout the store and shoppers to start asking to buy the scent.

Play the role of a student in a game where you try to navigate college and remain debt-free, selecting different income levels, high school experience, race, ethnicity, and more.

For centuries, it was common to sleep in two shifts: a few hours at the beginning of the night, and a longer period beginning around midnight

Exploring the Larry Bird punch that almost changed March Madness

Apeirophobia is an overwhelming fear of living forever, perhaps stemming from the brain's inability to conceptualize an infinite life.

In its famous catalog, Sears sold $600 DIY house kits from 1908 through the 1940s, resulting in an estimated 100,000 'Sears and Roebuck homes.'

Sony set the standard for cylinder-shaped batteries when it repurposed manufacturing equipment used to make rolls of magnetic recording tape.

'Silent' fireworks have gained more interest in recent years as a quieter celebratory option.

In 1945, Surrealist artist Salvador Dalí and legendary animator Walt Disney began collaborating on a short film that was not completed until 2003, years after both men had died.

Apollo astronauts left items in the moon's 'toss zone,' including golf balls, family photos, and bags of human waste, to make room for lunar rocks.

While atoms are normally made of protons, neutrons, and electrons, exotic ones have been built with antimatter—alternate versions of normal matter that live for fractions of a second and are about a billion times as rare.