Jack Dorsey on Square, How It Works & Why It Disrupts. Square CEO & Co-Founder Jack Dorsey. Photo by Bijan Sabet. In February 2009, Jim McKelvey, who’d left the technology business and became a glass blower, lost an order because he couldn’t accept a credit card from a customer who wanted to buy his creation. He called his friend and Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey. The two talked about lost opportunities in the current payment ecosystem that is dominated by giants such as Visa, MasterCard and PayPal. Within days McKelvey left St. Louis, moved to San Francisco to team up with Dorsey and Tristan O’Tierney and start working on what would eventually become Square. “We went through the whole payments process and worked on designing a brand-new (person-to-person) payment system,” said Dorsey in a conversation earlier today.
What Is Square? It’s essentially a small magnetic reader that plugs into the headphone jack of an iPhone. “We don’t store any information on the devices,” Dorsey said. Who’s Square For? Why Square Exists & Who Should Be Worried. Will Visa and Mastercard change the future of mobile payments? - Features. Reports are swirling out that the Isis mobile payment initiative will scale back its plans to have a new form of mobile payment in the United States in order to placate Visa and MasterCard and the move has been met with disappointment by some.
Bringing these payment giants into the fold presents the best opportunity for mobile payments to take off. When Isis debuted last year, it seemed like a game changer: Verizon Wireless, AT&T, T-Mobile, Barclay’s and Discover were teaming up to create a new form of mobile payment that would utilize Near-Field Communication technology. This would enable users to have their phones be their wallets and the NFC technology is secure and would open the door for tap-to-pay transactions. Your purchases would go through Discover and many even thought that eventually your carrier could act as a sort of credit card or debit card provider. Mobile payments on a mass scale in the United States isn’t going to happen without Visa and MasterCard on board. Who knows? The Future of Mobile Payments and Mobile Commerce. (photo: Starbucks) How would you like to pay for that latte: cash, card or… phone?
After months of testing in certain markets throughout the country, Starbucks (SBUX) announced today the launch of its mobile payment program nationwide. Now, you can pay for your drink using with the Starbucks Mobile Pay App for BlackBerry or iPhone (and iPod Touch) at any of the coffee chain’s nearly 6,800 locations and more than 1,000 Target stores. Technological advances in the mobile phone space have been nothing short of incredible over the past decade. Major players like Nokia, Research in Motion, Apple, Palm and Motorola continue to push the envelope as more and more people equip themselves with smartphones. At the same time, with the emergence of open development of apps, it seems there’s a smartphone application for just about anything these days. Mobile devices are pushing into gaming, internet browsing, business development, even media. 1. 2. 3. Pros: Cons: Are we moving towards a cashless society?
Jack Dorsey on Future of Mobile Payments. The future of payments | In Depth.