[shagie]

That needs to be put into context of the cost to acquire a customer. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Customer_acquisition_cost

Various sources:

$80 https://askwonder.com/research/average-customer-acquisition-...

> The short version is that it costs around $80 to acquire a customer who returns about $120 in profit.

https://medium.com/unifimoney/changing-the-vicious-cycle-of-...

> It costs on average around $200 to acquire a credit card customer in the US (up to and beyond $1,000 if they are affluent cards like MasterCard World Elite and Visa Infinite).

https://runningwithmiles.boardingarea.com/apple-card-custome...

> The Apple Card doesn’t need any affiliates or marketing yet analysts say that this new card has a customer acquisition cost of $350 and will take several years for Goldman Sachs to turn a profit on it.

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So the corresponding part of that is "we spent a lot to get a lot of customers. If they remain loyal, then GS will have something quite profitable for a long time." Spending $350 per customer is more than the $200 mentioned... but also much less than the $1000 for high end cards (and the tales of Chase Sapphire Reserve).