Category: square

Amazon might be working a Square competitor

Leena Rao for TechCrunch:

Rumors have been coming in that Amazon is readying a mobile payments product that could compete with Square, Intuit GoPayment and PayPal Here. A tipster and an industry source both tell us that Amazon is going after smaller chains of retailers for the product, and could be offering significantly lower credit card processing fees for merchants.

It makes so much sense for Amazon to enter this market, they already have both infrastructure and capital. But here’s the dealmaker:

Rumors are that Amazon could be offering a rate as low as 1.9 percent. Current offerings include fees of around 2.7 percent.

Why Square is the next big thing

Farhad Manjoo:

I believe the tech industry’s next great company is Square. If you’ve heard of Jack Dorsey’s three-year-old firm, you likely think of it as a payments startup. Square is famous for its white plastic card reader, a device that lets small businesses use phones and tablets to accept credit cards. But calling Square a mere payments company minimizes its potential, and it misses Dorsey’s world-changing mission.

Square is currently processing 8 billion on a yearly basis. So, they’re already big. But Manjoo sees Square grow even further:

Dorsey is bent on creating frictionless commerce. His long-term goal is to make accepting payments a breeze for businesses, and he wants to make paying for stuff invisible—for everyone, across the entire economy, for all types of goods and services. If Square succeeds in that mission, it will become a persistent, ever-present part of our daily lives. You’ll use it every time you engage with businesses—which might mean you’ll interact with Square more often than Google, Facebook, Amazon, or even Apple.

If someone can make this, it has to be Jack Dorsey.