Reports: Square Prepares for U.K. Launch
Square Inc. reportedly wants to set up shop in the U.K. That would put the mobile payments service up against such players as PayPal and Germany-based SumUp—among many others—for the loyalties of merchants.
TechCrunch and others report that Square Register, the company’s point-of-sale app, has started to accept payments in British pounds within the U.K.. Founded in 2009, Square has incorporated a unit called Square Europe LTD in the U.K., according to reports. There also exists an empty twitter account named @SquareUK that was created last month.
Square already operates in the U.S., Australia, Canada and Japan. The m-payments field may be crowded in the U.K. but the opportunity is clear: POS terminal penetration is growing at about 8 percent per year, and companies with between 1 and 49 workers account for 99 percent of the U.K.’s merchant base, according to the U.K.’s Department of Business Innovation and Skills, That’s important because about 60 percent of Square’s retail clients process less than $125,000 annually.
Earlier this year, Square added a feature to its Square Cash P2P money transfer service that enables users to store funds within their Square Cash accounts—a move that means the service can fulfill some of the functions of a mobile wallet.
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