The last 24 hours was a tale of two companies: HearMeOut (ASX:HMO) used the dying hours of Tuesday to announce its exit from the ASX, followed by Afterpay Touch (ASX:APT) rival Splitit (ASX:SPT) this morning revelling in yet more success.

Splitit, a company that uses existing credit card credit as the layby funds rather than setting up a payment plan as Afterpay and others do, says June quarter merchant sales volumes are up 260 per cent at $US65.4m ($94.2m) on the sale period last year and 176 per cent on the previous quarter.

In a prelude to its quarterly report, the company said the number of merchants using its service rose 104 per cent on the same period last year, and the number of unique shoppers was up 85 per cent, spending an average of $US893 each.

CEO Brad Paterson says European and American shoppers kept buying in June and merchants continued to shift online.

“Consumers are making better use of their existing credit to preserve cash, while demand from higher value merchants is ramping up,” he said.

“Our business model supports more efficient consumer budgeting during these uncertain times, and continues to deliver enormous benefit to merchants by significantly improving consumer conversion on their sites.”

An integration with payments channel Stripe Connect is now complete and the quarter also saw partnerships signed with Mastercard and Blue Snap, a company which supports merchants’ online sales systems.

Spilitit stock jumped 15 per cent on the news to $1.58.

 

Delisted: HearMeOut is gone

On the other side of the seesaw was HearMeOut, a company which spent hard, lived fast, and has finally been put out of its (ASX) misery.

It will become a public unlisted company and will “proactively undertake a review of its technology platform and identify potential acquisition opportunities” and might even try listing again if that happens.

The company became ASX-famous for hiring 14-year-old “cash me outside girl” Danielle Bregoli, a.k.a “Bhad Bhabi”, for a PR stunt, a girl who found fame as a spoiled teen on Dr Phil and has since gone on to become moderately successful — unlike her early backers.


The launch of “internet personality” Bhad Bhabie.
 

HearMeOut debuted in 2016 with a proposition to install into cars a tech that allow people to post 42-second thought bubbles to the social media forum of their choice — all hands free. It got downloads on Apple and Google, signed broadcaster Larry King to use it, and got Ford on board, and of course signed “international social media star” Bregoli.

What it never figured out is how to turn all of these things into actual money.

By early 2018 the company had flamed out. It sacked staff, shut the app down, and sold all rights to India and Asia to an Indian company in the hope that maybe it could make some money off the tech.

It spent $4m of shareholder cash, never made any revenue, and now, finally, has left the building.

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