Brand hipster Darryl Ohrt notes Square Up, the brainchild of Twitter founder Jack Dorsey, is almost open for business. The device is a tiny white square that plugs into a cell phone's audio jack, and allows a business to accept credit card payments from the handset. Coffee? Or marketing consulting on the beach? Just swipe away, and suddenly your small business is untethered from the brick office.
Darryl suggests this could give any business a chance to provide Apple retail store-style experiences, with helpful people walking the aisles bringing payment options to shoppers, avoiding long lines. It also could free up the 29 million small businesses in the United States tied to retail locations or homes often out of sync with changing customer populations.
Electronic gimmick, or savior of the economy?
The device has several features that should ease adoption (cause, face it, the world resists new technology hardware formats which is why you don't own an internet refrigerator). Businesses can swipe cards, pay no set up or monthly fees, check cardholder photos for verification, and email receipts. And if a customer loses a receipt, she can visit SquareUp.com and punch in her mobile number for an instant copy.
The market potential is huge. Small businesses make up 99.7% of all firms, and half are based out of homes. About 21 million people in the U.S. work for firms with fewer than 20 employees, and it's tough getting those babies off the ground. 627,000 firms started up in 2008, of which 595,000 shut down. Expediting cash flow could be just the juice to survive.
So: Will coffee shops deliver to your doorstep on Saturday mornings? Will eBay lose resellers of antiques who instead pitch copper weathervanes from credit-enabled pickup trucks? Will police give out more speeding tickets since charging your card at the pullover will be super fast?
Don't ask us: We'll have to go sell ad campaigns on the street during lunch.
4 comments:
Pretty cool stuff. I remember back when I was in college a few years back, there was a company called Obo Pay that was trying to do something similar. I dont think they ever caught on. I just sold my old blackberry on www.sellphoneforcash.com . Do you know if this is going to be compatible on all phones? What are the security measures for this type of thing? I read an article the other day about cell phone viruses and was unaware that they existed. Sounds like another avenue for identity theft with this innovation
Thanks, Anon. I checked out Obo Pay ... still seems operating, although I don't get the service after reading two of their web pages. The concept of putting money on cell phones is coming soon, but there are lots of security issues to work out.
Frankly, I'd love to have one device in my pocket instead of phone-keys-wallet.
Funny- for the past ten years (at least) we've been hearing all about how the Estonians and Koreans and everyone else is all about mobile payments and how far behind the US is.
Adoption will be slow: there are still slews of people who don't like EZ-Pass because they "don't like the government having all that information" (Like the government cares that they got off at Exit 7?)
But the urge to have fewer devices is a strong one and this is where we're headed. If the time is right for Square to take off remains to be seen.
Why that's incredible news! Very convenient especially for businessmen.
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