Numbers and shades – Block (formerly Square) led by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey is an e-payment company with multiple lines of business including Cash App, Square and Afterpay. The company is known for its Bitcoin and cryptocurrency craze. Block has just published on February 24, 2022, its financial report for the fourth quarter of 2021.
Gross profits up, net results much more modest
Block recorded a gross profit of $1.18 billion in the last quarter of 2021, a figure up 47% compared to the same period in 2020. Cash App generated $518 million in gross profit, compared to $657 million for Square, branches recording respective increases 37% and 54% year-on-year.
This performance of Block in the fourth quarter of 2021 is due, according to the company, to growth linked to the Cash App payment card, which had more than 13 million active users in December 2021, and to that of Square’s seller ecosystem. .
Block recorded $4.42 billion of gross profit in 2021, which is 62% more than in 2020. Block’s net profits over the various periods of last year are however less impressive.
They amount to (only) 166 million dollars for the whole of 2021, while the net results for the fourth quarter of last year are negative, with a loss of 77 million dollars. These significant differences between Block’s gross profits and net results thus suggest high operating costs.
In addition to releasing these figures, Block highlighted in its report the importance of the closing of the purchase of Afterpay on January 31, 2022. Afterpay is a platform that allows its users to “buy now, pay later “. The company believes that this acquisition will allow it to increase its offerings and products in 2022.
Block apparently still needs to make significant efforts to reduce its operating costs, in order to reduce the gap between its gross and net results. Jack Dorsey’s company continues in 2022 to increase its exposure to cryptocurrencies. Block recently announced the Lightning network integration with Cash App to speed up bitcoin (BTC) transactions.
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