Re:Square’s IPO Terms Put Valuation Below Latest Funding Round
by x0x0 on Friday November 06, 2015 @06:11PM
(#10522670)
Square will obviously have to grow more, but the reason I think they have a future is they're getting merchants who didn't take cards to take them, easily and cheaply. My family is not on the coast and there's still a lot of places that don't take cards for whom square should be a really good solution. Then they can do the classic microsoft strategy: start with the smallest/cheapest and relentlessly move upmarket. Will they ever be the solution for Safeway with hundreds of stores and a very complex discounting system? Probably not. But there's a lot of smaller businesses. Small to medium restaurants should be a key target customer.
Re:Square’s IPO Terms Put Valuation Below Latest Funding Round
by enjo on Friday November 06, 2015 @06:31PM
(#10522750)
Here in Denver I see it all the time. I actually don't really notice it (a problem for them as so many competitors directly cloned them)... until that email receipt arrives.
It's not ubiquitous here, but it's certainly common.
Another challenge for Square is that their core merchants are mom & pop coffee shops or like you said, food trucks - not particularly lucrative segments.
Square's POS can never compete with full-service POS (Aloha, Micros), and even in the quick-service market there is increasing competition (Clover POS, Revel etc). That's why they've moved into payroll, HR, time-tracking, albeit the $5 per employee is ridiculously expensive for SMB's.