With 9M Daily Users, Is Klarna's App the New Daily Money Ritual?

Core Insights - Klarna Group plc (KLAR) has experienced significant growth in app usage, reaching over 55 million active users monthly, with daily usage increasing by 53% year-over-year to 9 million users [1][9] - The fourth quarter of 2025 marked Klarna's first billion-dollar revenue quarter, achieving $1.08 billion, a 38% increase from the previous year, with total gross merchandise volume (GMV) rising 32% to $38.7 billion [3][9] - Fair Financing, a segment involving longer-tenor credit products, saw GMV grow by 165% year-over-year to $4.5 billion, indicating a shift towards higher revenue per transaction [4] User and Transaction Growth - Klarna's global payments network connected 118 million consumers in Q4 2025, a 28% increase year-over-year, with 29 million consumers in the U.S. alone [2] - Merchant additions surged to 966 thousand in the quarter, up 42% year-over-year, enhancing transaction volume and cross-sell opportunities [2] Competitive Landscape - Klarna faces increasing competition from companies like Affirm Holdings, which reported a 36% year-over-year GMV increase to $13.8 billion, and PayPal, which has a strong presence in 200 markets and reported over $40 billion in BNPL total payment volume, up more than 20% year-over-year [5][6][7] Stock Performance and Valuation - Klarna's shares have declined by 42.2% over the past month, underperforming the broader industry, which fell by 6.3% [8][9] - The company trades at a forward price-to-earnings ratio of 24.21X, higher than the industry average of 17.82X, with a Zacks Consensus Estimate indicating a loss of 1 cent for 2026 and a profit of 91 cents for 2027 [11]