Competition is Intense. So What's New?

Research evidence excerpt

Competition is Intense. So What's New?

June 9, 2026

Likewise, two-sided digital app-based models (with consumers on one side

and content creators or other service providers on another) may have

distinct payment processing relationships for these distinct constituencies

(with advertising supported models potentially resulting in yet more

potential acquiring relationships). Multiply this by dozens of international

jurisdictions, and it becomes even more challenging for individual third-

party/external experts to gain clear views on overall, total-portfolio market

share gains and losses.

Can Adyen manage corridor-specific pricing pressure? We believe the

answer is yes. It is important to note that the nature of competition in

digital acquiring is fundamentally different than in contract-driven brick

and mortar acquiring relationships. Fewer and fewer large merchants

depend on single processors. Instead, most enterprise digital merchants

typically adopt a least-cost-routing approach where volume shifts between

a group of acquiring partners according to which transactions are most

beneficial for the merchant. And “beneficial” could refer to pricing,

authorization rates, fraud performance, volume incentive targets, VAS

commitments or other parameters. Volume share is constantly in

flux, and every e-commerce-focused merchant acquirer is continually

competing—often hour-by-hour and corridor-by-corridor—based on these

metrics. This continual “jump ball” approach effectively translates into

competitive dynamics for specific acquirers where pricing, product bundles

& capabilities, and performance translate into real-time market share gains

or losses. In other words, digital commerce share shifts are not typically

contractual or permanent, but rather the result of a perpetual game