Twitter founder Jack Dorsey launches iPhone payment product

Square Up looks like an awesome credit card payment solution for retail. It’s a credit card processing system that works with mobile phones. Scan credit cards for payment. Get photo verification of your customers. Send receipts via email rather than paper.

the Telegraph.co.uk: Technology:  Twitter founder Jack Dorsey launches iPhone payment product posted a great article on Twitter founder Jack Dorsey launching this iPhone payment product.

One of the founders of Twitter has launched a new e-payment technology which he hopes will revolutionise the way consumers pay for goods and services.

Jack Dorsey, who came up with the idea for Twitter and is now the micro-blogging site’s chairman, has just unveiled Square, his new technology start-up which basically allows someone with an iPhone or iPod Touch to begin accepting credit or debit card payments instantly.

The product is aimed at cutting out the need for small business owners to have merchant accounts with the likes or Visa and Mastercard, but is also intended to allow individuals exchanging money – perhaps after a purchase on Craigslist – to exchange funds without the need for carrying cash.

The idea is that eventually, anyone with a mobile phone will be able to accept card payments. The security risk is reduced because card details are not held on the individual’s phone, but rather beamed back to a central database which processes the payment and issues an e-mail receipt.

The company is called Square because the small plastic device which is plugged into the bottom of the iPhone is a white plastic square with a chip attached.

“I think we’re going to give the Squares away for free,” Mr Dorsey told the Los Angeles Times, “because they’re pretty cheap for us to make.”

However, unlike Twitter, which is famously only beginning to commercialise, Mr Dorsey does have a business model, with plans to initially charge $1 for the iPhone application required to use the system.

In true Twitter style, Mr Dorsey announced the new project to the world on the micro-blogging site, saying only: “Announcing our new company, called Square, which I’m thrilled to be a part of” and then giving the company’s website, www.squareup.com.

The paperless payment company – aimed as a person-to-person payment system – is based in San Francisco. Square has already raised $10m in a first round of fundraising, valuing it an initial $40m, with early investors including Khosala Ventures, whose partner Gideon Yu used to be the chief financial officer of Facebook.

Square is initially undergoing a limited roll-out in the San Francisco area, with initially warm feedback, before a fuller roll-out next year.

thanks to Telegraph.co.uk: Technology:  Twitter founder Jack Dorsey launches iPhone payment product by James Quinn

and Brandflakes for Breakfast for making us aware of this new product: add a little apple store style to your retail experience