Buy Now Pay Later was all the rage a couple of years ago. What's better than not having to pay for your purchases right away?
Well... Black Friday happened last week and after following this trend since 2021 I was excited to see if there's still demand for taking on debt and if so, who it's with.
Let's start at the top. This November, Klarna, Affirm, and Afterpay, the most downloaded BNPL apps in the US, saw a total of 2.4M downloads from the US, according to our estimates. This is a bit lower than last year's 3M but higher than 2020's 2M.
It's important to note that downloads across the entire shopping category are down this Black Friday vs 2022. According to the Mobile Download Index, the Shopping category on the App Store dropped 29 points, and the trend on Google Play is very similar.
Klarna, the rising star back in 2021, scored the lowest number of new downloads in the US this November. Our estimates show 693K downloads for Klarna - almost half of what Klarna saw in 2021, which was its biggest year.
In the US, Affirm and Afterpay led the way this year with 895K and 848K downloads, respectively, according to our estimates. Although downloads of all three dropped when compared to last year, it's Afterpay that dropped the least this year.
I don't expect much to change as we head into December.
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