SCHAUMBURG, ILL.–Square Inc., a startup company offering mobile point-of-sale payment-acceptance services, is willing to talk to merchant services sales agents and other distributors, but just not yet, according to the company’s CEO.
Square remains unsure how relationships between the San Francisco-based company and resellers would work, Jack Dorsey said here July 21 at the Midwest Acquirers Association conference.
“We’re still trying to figure out distribution,” Dorsey said. “We want to see how [growth] happens organically. Right now, we’re focusing on the technology.”
Square’s POS software operates on Apple Inc.’s iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad devices using a card reader that plugs into the audio jack to capture card-present data. Square also has a version for smartphones operating Google Inc.’s Android system.
In June, Square delayed the rollout of its card reader to address risk concerns and hardware shortages (
A pilot of Square’s latest credit card processing model, which includes revised risk assessments that consider individuals’ online presence and longevity as a way to identify them, will wrap up in a few weeks, and the company should begin deploying card readers soon afterward, Dorsey said.
The pilot includes merchants in San Francisco, New York, St. Louis, Los Angeles and other locations. Dorsey would not say how many merchants are participating.
Dorsey also confirmed that Square will aggregate its transactions, much like PayPal does, and has received approval from Visa Inc. and MasterCard Worldwide to do so.
