“Visa and Mastercard are the definition of high margin duopolies. The two companies have dominant positions in global cashless payments, with Visa commanding a 39% market share of transaction volumes and Mastercard having a 24% (Figure 1). Although UnionPay is listed as having 34% market share, most of that are transactions within China…The shift to a cashless society has benefited the two firms greatly, particularly in the last few years due to rise of online shopping and the COVID-19 pandemic. According to the Economist article, the use of credit and debit cards in transactions reached 57% in 2021, up 12 pts from 45% in 2016.”