Fintechbolagen: "En marknad för världshistoriens sämsta kreditkunder" : En kvalitativ analys av Klarna och Qliro

Sammanfattning: The word fintech-companies stands for companies who utilize the ever evolving modern technology to succeed in the financial space. Klarna is a prime example of a fintech-company who have made success by providing payment-options to their users via their phone application, Their business model has made the swedishborn company a international giant, and they are the most used paymentprovider with 150 million active users. Nonetheless the Swedish media declared Klarna users the worst credit customers in the history of the world after statistics showed how much they lost due to customers not being able to pay back. Another leading Swedish fintech-company who provides payment-options is Qliro, which differs from Klarna by one factor, Qliro does not sell products. The purpose of the study is to examine how consumption discourse is created in Klarna and Qliros applications, and to compare the results between the two. The study also looked at how the structure and functions of the applications positioned the users as actors.  The method used in the study was the critical discourse analysis combined with the analytic tool affordances from the technographic analysis method. This method was used due to the standpoint the critical discourse analysis takes on discourse as a producer and reproducer of knowledge, social identities and social relations. In the analysis we used the three dimensional model which is provided by the critical discourse analysis and provides methods to analyze discursive practice, text and social practice. The affordances tool was combined with the discursive practice to show a more complete vision of the production of discourse.  During the analysis three types of discourse were identified; economic discourse, discourse about responsibility and consumption discourse, but only the first two occurred on Qliro. The economic discourse focused mostly on economic responsibilities on both the applications, encouraging moderate consumption through text and symbols. The discourse about responsibility encouraged both economic responsibility and responsible consumption through functions, text and symbols. The consumption discourse on Klarna was on their marketplace and their connected functions. It was shown on the sponsored advertisements and encouraged consumption and created desire through text and images that projected symbolic and objective value on the products. The analysis also identified text on Qliro who could create a relaxed relationship between user and company, but they also positioned themselves in an authoritarian position by declaring they will deny loans that seem unreasonable.