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Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey announced his new company on Tuesday in appropriate fashion: with a tweet on the network he created in 2006. His new company, Square, allows merchants and individuals accept secure payment from credit (and other) cards using a mobile phone.
"The basic idea behind Square is that everyone has this little plastic device in their pocket today, which is a payment card, credit card, debit card or pre-paid card, and they're using them everywhere, they're using them to buy anything," explained Dorsey in a TechCrunch video demonstration. "We found that very interesting, and we wanted to turn on the other side of that -- we wanted to allow people to very easily and quickly, within 10 seconds, be able to accept these plastic devices as payment."
According to Square's website, payees can start accepting payments via Square in under 60 seconds, with "no contracts, monthly fees, or hidden costs." The company donates one cent from every transaction to the charity of the payer's choice. In order to streamline the process, payees can register for Square and upload a photo, so that payees can verify that you are who you say you are.
It's not yet clear how Square's transaction fees will square with those of traditional merchant accounts. "We're not giving out rate sheets just yet, as they are in flux until we have a general launch," Dorsey told wired.com via e-mail. "When we do though, the fees will be completely transparent, simple and upfront."
In order to accept credit card payment using Square's iPhone app, a merchant attaches a card-reading dongle to the smartphone's audio input — or "any device with an audio input jack." Once the customer signs the phone with their finger, the transaction is complete, after which the app can e-mail a receipt to the customer:
The video demonstration depicts an iPhone, but the company is currently hiring Google Android and Blackberry developers, so users of those phones can probably expect the service to migrate there at some point.
See Also:
- Flickr Document Reveals Origin Of Twitter
- Twitter to Get Down to Business in 2009, Investors Say
- PayPal Joins the OpenID Foundation's Board
- Booting Up Baghdad: Tech Execs Take a Tour in Iraq
- Fake a Credit Card - Video - Wired
Screenshots courtesy of Square
*Hat tip to Laughing Squid
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