{"id":336949,"date":"2017-03-28T17:59:06","date_gmt":"2017-03-28T09:59:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/techcrunch.com\/?p=1469554"},"modified":"2017-03-28T17:59:06","modified_gmt":"2017-03-28T09:59:06","slug":"square-finally-opens-for-business-in-the-uk-its-first-market-in-europe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/square-finally-opens-for-business-in-the-uk-its-first-market-in-europe\/","title":{"rendered":"Square finally opens for business in the UK, its first market in Europe"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

Almost a year after setting up<\/a> a UK business entity called Squareup Europe, today the payments company Square<\/a> is officially opening up for business in the UK<\/a>, marking its first move into Europe and its fifth country after\u00a0Canada, Japan, Australia and its home market in the\u00a0US.<\/p>\n

The news was announced this morning at an event in London with Square\u2019s CEO Jack Dorsey (who is also the CEO of Twitter).<\/p>\n

\u201cWe founded Square to empower small businesses with tools to accept all forms of payments and to make a sale anytime, anywhere\u201d he said. \u201cWe look forward to working alongside the millions of entrepreneurs and thriving independent, small and medium-sized businesses across the UK, especially those who do not yet take card payments.\u201d<\/p>\n

Square, which is publicly traded,\u00a0will be looking to get some traction in the UK market first with a point-of-sale payments service targeting small and medium businesses (the news in fact was announced at an event at the Soho Piano Bar, one of Square\u2019s first customers here): Square will sell a \u00a339\u00a0Square Reader, a piece of hardware that\u00a0connects by Bluetooth to your phone or tablet to turn that device into a payment card reader. And in addition to selling the reader, Square will take a\u00a01.75 percent cut on all in-person transactions, and 2.5 percent for any sales made online, by phone or electronic invoice.<\/p>\n

This is not Square\u2019s first foray into business in the UK. Back in 2014, we spotted that the\u00a0company\u2019s point-of-sale software Register was quietly launched globally<\/a>\u00a0to allow people to take virtual payments, but this hasn\u2019t been actively promoted as a business. In an interview, Sarah Harvey, who is heading\u00a0up Square\u2019s efforts in the UK, would not disclose how many businesses are using that currently in the UK, nor how much money it is processing here.<\/p>\n

But a more formal entry into the UK is a long time coming.<\/p>\n

Square, which was first launched in 2009, originally made its name by offering an easy way for small businesses to take card payments by creating\u00a0a phone or tablet app that worked with\u00a0a small piece of hardware, made and sold by Square, to transform those consumer devices into card readers and processors. Square marketed this specifically to those who didn\u2019t take card payments previously and\/or found buying traditional equipment and paying bank fees too expensive.<\/p>\n

That is a service that had a ready market in the UK, too \u2014 where today there are an estimated 5.4 million small and medium businesses, and millions more sole traders, with a population of consumers that prefer to pay by cards: the average consumer carries only \u00a325 pounds and 70% of all transactions are made with debit and credit cards.<\/p>\n

So unsurprisingly, in the years between Square first launching its services in the US in 2009 and today, a number of\u00a0other companies have sprouted up to sell\u00a0similar services in the UK, including iZettle<\/a>, PayPal<\/a>, SumUp<\/a> and more.<\/p>\n

In other words, the market for stealing\u00a0customers from existing, established companies is tight, and the number of businesses who take no card payments at all (late adopters) is smaller: it\u2019s estimated that about half of the UK\u2019s small enterprises do not accept card payments today.<\/p>\n

Some believe that Square has, in fact, already missed the boat for making a splash in the market.<\/p>\n

However, if you look at other businesses in the world of tech, it\u2019s not always the first movers who are the winners (just look at Apple and the iPhone as\u00a0one example).<\/p>\n

What will be interesting to watch is not only whether Square manages to gain traction with its late entry into the UK market, but what else is chooses to bring here alongside the payments services.<\/p>\n

Square in the U.S. has been moving beyond payments enabled by a mobile phone or tablet, into more specific industry services like food ordering and delivery; as well as cash advances, invoicing, API access for on-site integrations and other services for businesses.<\/p>\n

In its last earnings<\/a>, Square noted that \u201cnew products\u201d launched since 2014 represented 25 percent of its\u00a0adjusted revenues for the quarter. Harvey would not comment to me on when and if Square planned to introduce services like these in the UK, nor whether there were plans to expand to other markets in Europe.<\/p>\n

Revenues at the company last quarter increased 35 percent, to $402 million in the quarter. Subscription and services-based revenues grew 81 percent, to $41 million in the same quarter. Hardware sales, which represent\u00a0the smallest portion of its revenue mix, grew to $8.9 million\u00a0as more vendors continue to upgrade to contactless and chip-card readers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\"\" Almost a year after setting up a UK business entity called Squareup Europe, today the payments company Square is officially opening up for business in the UK, marking its first move into Europe and its fifth country after\u00a0Canada, Japan, Australia and its home market in the\u00a0US. The news was announced this morning at an event in London with Square’s CEO Jack Dorsey (who is also the CEO… Read More<\/a><\/p>\n

\n<\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a>\n<\/div>\n

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