X

Square handling $4 million daily in mobile payments

The mobile payments company says that its credit card reader attachment for mobile devices has raised daily transactions by another million since late May.

Jessica Dolcourt Senior Director, Commerce & Content Operations
Jessica Dolcourt is a passionate content strategist and veteran leader of CNET coverage. As Senior Director of Commerce & Content Operations, she leads a number of teams, including Commerce, How-To and Performance Optimization. Her CNET career began in 2006, testing desktop and mobile software for Download.com and CNET, including the first iPhone and Android apps and operating systems. She continued to review, report on and write a wide range of commentary and analysis on all things phones, with an emphasis on iPhone and Samsung. Jessica was one of the first people in the world to test, review and report on foldable phones and 5G wireless speeds. Jessica began leading CNET's How-To section for tips and FAQs in 2019, guiding coverage of topics ranging from personal finance to phones and home. She holds an MA with Distinction from the University of Warwick (UK).
Expertise Content strategy, team leadership, audience engagement, iPhone, Samsung, Android, iOS, tips and FAQs.
Jessica Dolcourt
Square on Android
Square's mobile app and card-reading attachment is also being pitched as an alternative to NFC. Photo by Jessica Dolcourt/CNET

PayPal mobile payment rival Square has said that it now processes approximately $4 million daily in mobile payments, $1 million more than Square advertised it handled at the end of May.

Square has clearly sailed beyond any shadows cast by the nasty volley begun by CEO of competitor VeriFone, Doug Bergeron, and answered by Square's CEO and co-founder, Jack Dorsey that called into question the security of Square's credit-card reading attachment for mobile devices.

Instead, the increased processing numbers reflect Square's booming growth, a rise that has been bolstered by a sizable investment from Visa in late April. A recent funding round of $100 million has swept the payments start-up to a $1 billion valuation.

Despite the important uptick for Square in particular, it and the rest of the mobile payments market have a long way to go. To put payments into perspective, credit card companies will process billions of dollars in payments on a given day, and mobile payments--still an inchoate, although rapidly expanding portion of the industry--can hope to garner a tiny percentage of total credit card activity this year.

Analysts at the Yankee Group forecast that mobile transactions will surge from $162 billion globally in 2010 to $984 billion in 2014, according to Fierce Wireless.