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Square’s mobile payment system features free card readers to merchants in the U.S., Japan, and Canada. This enables users to accept Visa, MasterCard, Discover, and American Express cards. The card readers can be used on both Apple and Android devices, and the transaction fees are 2.75 percent per swipe. According to Gartner Research; they predict a 41 percent annual growth in mobile payment transactions. In addition, they forecast a market totaling up to $617 billion by 2016 with approximately 448 million users.
Recently, Square has purchased Viewfinder, a photo-sharing as well as group messaging app, which each of the companies confirmed Tuesday. The details and conditions of the contract were not unveiled.
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Viewfinder was released on iOS, in early 2013, with the objective of creating private interactions around images. These are pictures that may normally solely exist in your mobile phone’s digital camera gallery. The app structures pictures by date together with location according to the photos’ metadata. Clients are able to then begin or even link up with communications, which are connected to these types of images.
App Annie data showed that, even though the Viewfinder picked up a certain amount of media publicity, it barely made it into the leading 100 iPhone apps in Greece alone. In September, the organization initiated the move to prep a significant modification designed to induce end users to disclose “important moments.”
In all probability, it shouldn’t be unexpected that Square’s revelation concentrated significantly less on the app in comparison to the group behind it, which incorporates technical engineers previously employed by Google. As a result, Viewfinder’s staff is going to be tasked with perfecting “seller initiatives” as well as facilitating the growth of Square’s New York office. In addition, in 2014, they plan on increasing their engineering team by three times its current size.
Bob Lee, Square’s CTO, wrote, “On a personal note, I couldn’t be more excited to work again with Spencer, Peter, Ben, et al. We crossed paths again at Google where they kindled the Google NYC engineering office and spearheaded key infrastructure.”
The Viewfinder app isn’t going to be suspended, but on the other hand it will not receive support. The Viewfinder team reported,”Existing users will still be able to use the Viewfinder app for the time being, although we will no longer be releasing updates or providing customer support.”
This venture is now Square’s third purchase. The mobile phone payments business acquired a smaller sized, online video media development, company in 2011 along with 80/20, a New York style and design business in October.
How do you make mobile payments? What do you think of Square’s latest acquisition? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below!
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Jim Benedict
I use the Square device and I like it a lot. They seem to be invested in their growth.