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Overhead costs
Square's stock price plunged more than 6 percent Wednesday evening following an earnings miss, a underperformance the company attributes to the cost of its diversification beyond a mobile point of sale company.
For the first quarter ending Dec. 31, Square said its earnings would be 6 to 8 cents per share, well below Wall Street analysts’ expectations of 11 cents. That's based on a net loss of 28.2 million from 15.7 million the prior year. As the same time, operating expenses jumped 51.5 percent to 383.2 million, as Square upped its spending on sales, marketing and product development. The company's products remain popular, as total revenue jumped 51 percent to $932 million.
Mobile point of sale hardware companies are under pressure to add more accounting, lending and merchant software as small to medium sized businesses look to consolidate third party relationships. Beyond
More time for mobile
The Reserve Bank of India has extended a Know Your Customer deadline by six months, giving some breathing room to Amazon Pay, MobiKwik and other mobile payment apps.
The deadline is today, but the companies asked the government for an extension due the complexity of vetting a large number of users in a new market, reports
The RBI said the move was made in part to improve financial inclusion in India, where most payments are still made in cash despite a considerable push for
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South Korean banks aren't adequately open to third parties, according to South Korea's Financial Service Commission, which will force the nation's banks to open their payment systems to fintechs.
The country's banks already have a two-year-old API, but access has been limited and is accompanied by high fees, reports
It's a move similar to Europe's PSD2, which has spurred open banking in Europe and elsewhere.
Restaurant VC appears
Romulus Capital and Recruit holdings are among the investors in a new $20 million round in Presto, which offers tablet order and payment in restaurants, as well as wearable devices that alert servers when customers need them, reports
Presto aims its technology at restaurants that want to maintain an "eat in" service level while adopting mobile technology — and is a competitive play against
Presto also uses AI to gauge local activity such as sporting events to help restaurants determine specials or staffing levels.
Expansion plans
German mobile bank
N26 has work to do before it can formally launch. It has applied for licenses in both the U.S. and Brazil, and is still looking for bank partners in both countries, though it recently
N26 will launch a subsidiary in Brazil next week. It hopes to debut in both Brazil and the U.S. later in 2019, reports
From the Web
CNBC | Wed February 27, 2019 - The pace with which we are moving toward the internet of things is "very rapid", according to the vice chairman of payments giant Mastercard. With our lives becoming increasingly digitized, the amount of personal data we share online is increasing.
CCN | Wed February 27, 2019 - Bitcoin or another cryptocurrency won’t supplant PayPal and credit cards as payment options yet, but they could in due time. That’s the assessment of Lisa Ellis, an equity analyst with sell-side research firm MoffettNathanson.
Forbes | Wed February 27, 2019 - While the bitcoin price has struggled, bitcoin supporters have remained hopeful it will continue to grow, with the likes of Twitter's Jack Dorsey and Tesla's Elon Musk heaping praise on bitcoin and its underlying technology. Now, Apple cofounder Steve Wozniak has said, despite the heavy bitcoin sell-off, he still experiments with bitcoin and believes there has been "massive value creation" since the bitcoin bubble burst.
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The subscription services industry is a booming market that has drawn-in hundreds of startups, millions of dollars in venture capital and changed many aspects of how people shop. The competition for consumer spending is so fierce it’s even convinced old-line consumer packaged goods companies and retailers to re-invent themselves by shipping their products directly to consumers instead of making them shop in physical stores.
The U.K.’s major banks are urging regulators to allow for greater flexibility in processing high-risk transactions, in a bid to tackle ever-rising levels of financial crime.
There has been considerable industry chatter and analysis since news broke that Apple and Goldman Sachs are teaming up to issue a credit card on the Mastercard network.
Leaders at higher educational institutions are actively exploring blockchain applications, and with good reason.
