> The reality is there's very little evidence for an actual "broader slowdown". GDP growth in the US was decent in the last quarter despite a huge decline in home sales and headwinds from inflation, and unemployment remains at record lows.
I thinks as a payment processor, they are in a better position than most to predict sales trends. This effect might be restricted to their segment of the market. But if the payments they process are down significantly, then does it matter (to Stripe) if parts of the economy that they aren’t involved in are more robust?
I’m not excusing actions, but they have more data on the economy than most, just from their position in it. They may have thought (their part of) the market was going to keep growing (the mistake), but that doesn’t change the fact that it isn’t.
Stripe’s reach as a processor probably isn’t broad enough to see those kinds of trends. Their processing fees are quite high so there’s huge industry sectors that will just never touch them.
Stripe processes in the area of $350-400bln annually, which is equivalent to about 1/10th the GDP of the U.K. That's absolutely enough volume to see macro trends as it relates the classes of merchants they support.
Who said anything about being the largest? The question was whether they have sufficient data to make predictions about future trends, especially as it applies to their business.
I thinks as a payment processor, they are in a better position than most to predict sales trends. This effect might be restricted to their segment of the market. But if the payments they process are down significantly, then does it matter (to Stripe) if parts of the economy that they aren’t involved in are more robust?
I’m not excusing actions, but they have more data on the economy than most, just from their position in it. They may have thought (their part of) the market was going to keep growing (the mistake), but that doesn’t change the fact that it isn’t.
I just feel bad for everyone affected.