Category: Financial Transactions

The Battle of the Payment Networks: Visa vs. MasterCard

In the fast-paced world of financial transactions, two giants stand out: Visa and MasterCard. These two titans of the payment network industry have been competing for market dominance for years, and the landscape continues to evolve with each passing year. A recent infographic by Joshua Novick provides a striking visual representation of the current state of affairs. Visa has long been recognized as the market leader in the payment networks sector. It was tied with MasterCard 15 years ago but now boasts a 36% larger market size. In 2022, Visa reported $30.2 billion in revenue, whereas MasterCard reported $22.2 billion. This gap is also reflected in their respective revenue growth rates, with Visa showing a more consistent upward trend over the past five years compared to MasterCard. Visa’s dominance is further highlighted by its share of card transactions. In 2022, nearly 40% of card transactions were Visa-branded, involving 242 billion purchase transactions worldwide. Visa also overshadows MasterCard in the number of cards in circulation, with 4.25 billion Visa cards compared to 3.30 billion MasterCard cards as of September 2023. When looking at market capitalization, Visa stands at a colossal $530 billion as of December 23, 2023, significantly outpacing MasterCard’s $395 […]

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