Square made a huge splash after announcing that Starbucks would use the start-up to process all of its credit and debit transactions.
Now, one of Square’s biggest rivals is making it clear that it is still in the game.
In ranking the two deals, Ken Paterson, VP of Research at Mercator Advisory Group, says he would guess that PayPal’s deal (with Discover Card) is potentially larger. ”It could bring PayPal to the majority of card-accepting merchants across the country,” he said. “The potential scale involved here is very significant.”
It's interesting to see the game of chess that companies play in order to distinguish themselves within the marketplace. In such a narrow arena as mobile credit-card processing, Square cannot make a move without anticipating PayPal to be on its heels. It will be interesting to see how Square will continue to distinguish itself in order to stand out within the marketplace, among PayPal, which has existed longer and has a huge influence over internet transactions. Personally, I'd be upset if Square dies because of the giant that PayPal and Discover are, but that's just me rooting for the underdog.
Posted by: Paulina | October 10, 2012 at 11:05 PM