Tag: square

Mobile payments firm to expand into Canada

| July 4, 2014

Square announces plans to open up new office in Canada this year

Square, one of the largest mobile payments firms in the U.S., is continuing its efforts to break into new markets by opening up a new office in Canada. The company has found significant success in the mobile space through its various partnerships, one of the most famous of which is its partnership with Starbucks. By teaming with Starbucks, Square was able to secure its position as a leader in the mobile commerce space. Now, the company is looking to expand beyond the U.S.

New office to be based in Ontario and tap into province’s tech community

Square has plans to open up a new office with more than 30 employees in Ontario, Canada, by September of this year. The company is looking to tap into Ontario’s “thriving and talented tech community” in order to establish a foothold in the Canadian mobile commerce space. The demand for effective mobile commerce solutions in Canada has been on the rise among businesses and consumers alike, and the time may be right for Square to take advantage of this growing demand.

Square helps iOS users participate in mobile commerce

Square Mobile PaymentsPart of the appeal of Square is that it makes mobile payments possible on iOS devices. These devices do not have the inherent ability to participate in mobile commerce and rely on auxiliary applications and hardware in order to do so. This has been something of a problem for iOS users that are interested in mobile commerce, but their demands are being met, to some degree, by Square’s services.

Retailers are beginning to feel the need to engage mobile consumers and Square may be able to help

Canadian retailers are becoming more conscious of the mobile space and are taking steps to engage consumers through a variety of mobile initiatives. Square will offer a new way to engage these consumers and encourage them to make payments with their mobile devices. Engaging mobile consumers will likely lead to higher sales for retailers and helping them appeal more to a demographic that is beginning to change rapidly.

eBay mobile payments app finds success with young adults

| May 7, 2014

New payments application is helping eBay become more appealing in the mobile space

Leading online retailer eBay has been putting more focus on the mobile sector in recent years. Much of the company’s efforts in the mobile field are being handled by PayPal, but eBay has also been flexing its own proverbial muscles in the mobile space, hoping to promote mobile payments among young adults. eBay’s Venmo peer-to-peer payments application has seen strong growth recently among this demographic, which suggests that the company’s efforts may be paying off.

Venmo finds success among college students thanks to its social networking features

Venmo has become quite popular with young adults on college campuses. Many people are using this application to settle debts among one another or split the cost of meals at restaurants. The application is designed more like a social network than a typical payment processor. Venmo boasts of a news feed that tracks transactions that users want to share publicly, but does not show the actual amount being paid. Users can interact with one another in a manner resembling Twitter while also seeing what their friends are purchasing and what they have to say about those products.

Voyeurism helps boost the attraction of eBay’s mobile application

eBay - Mobile PaymentsSocial network voyeurism is nothing new. It is quite common for people to browse the social feeds of their friends to see what they are doing on a daily basis. Indeed, this is one of the primary reason social networks are so popular. eBay claims that this voyeurism is what makes the Venmo application so popular among young consumers as it reinforces the application’s network effect.

Venmo will have to compete with other mobile payments platforms in order to become a success

Venmo is still relatively new to the mobile payments field. Though the application has managed to find a degree of success, it still must compete with other, more popular platforms before it can be considered a competitive mobile commerce platform. Both Google and Square currently represent some of eBay’s most challenging competition in the mobile field and these two companies will not be easily beaten.