Source: Nilson
Combined, Visa & MasterCard own 82% of the total market share. China’s UnionPay is a distant third at 13% and ahead of American Express at 7.3%. Both Visa & MasterCard report excellent earnings with fat margins – typical of companies with ......We’ve recently touched on companies with significant economic moats and they’ve mostly been technology companies. Now we turn our attention to a simpler industry (relative to tech firms) with a simple business model – the payment card industry and to be more specific, Visa (NYSE: V) and MasterCard (NYSE: MA).
Nearly everyone has heard of these two companies (thanks to the countless ads) and no cards are more widely accepted than these two. They are by no means a complete duopoly in the payment card industry as there are other competitors like American Express (NYSE:AXP), JCB, Discover, Diners and UnionPay. However, the numbers speak for itself:
