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Square's primary problem is not the lack of an API. Square's problem is that the margin on processing physical credit cards is razor thin, especially if you ar

by dlevine 12y ago

Square's primary problem is not the lack of an API. Square's problem is that the margin on processing physical credit cards is razor thin, especially if you are just using other people's networks. My thought has been that Square will eventually launch its own credit card network once they have a large enough share of the credit card processing market. Square could have launched an API and done what Stripe did, but the problem of processing credit cards over the Internet are different from the problem of processing physical credit cards. I don't think that anyone could have simultaneously succeeded at both.

icelancer 12y ago
They already process cards over the Internet with Square Marketplace. They clearly were interested in entering this area, but fell years behind everyone else despite having years+ first mover advantage.
- sinzone 12y ago
  Shopify won the marketplace part, and also launched POS, which is a direct competitor of Square. http://www.shopify.com/pos http://www.shopify.com/pos
- whbk 12y ago
  I remember emailing Tristan O'Tierney back in 2012 asking about an API after having seen that they had allowed a small beta group access to an API [0,1]. His response was just that they'd decided against moving forward with it -- not sure of the specifics but they had at least gotten that ball rolling at one point before deciding to focus on other things, would be interesting to hear more about that decision. [0] https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/square-client-api/c0rdiYryXJk https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/square-client-api/c0... [1] https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/square-client-api/7xFFwUotJNY https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/square-client-api/7x...
rahimnathwani 12y ago
You'd have to have a really large part of the acquiring market, if you hope to get consumers to use your new card brand. The idea of Square doing tang seems similar to the idea of imo.im getting people to use their own IM network in preference to the popular third party ones they already support. It might be doable but there would need to be a hook for cardholders, like cash back, loyalty points, analytics etc.

by dlevine 12y ago

icelancer 12y ago

They already process cards over the Internet with Square Marketplace. They clearly were interested in entering this area, but fell years behind everyone else despite having years+ first mover advantage.

sinzone 12y ago
Shopify won the marketplace part, and also launched POS, which is a direct competitor of Square. http://www.shopify.com/pos http://www.shopify.com/pos
whbk 12y ago
I remember emailing Tristan O'Tierney back in 2012 asking about an API after having seen that they had allowed a small beta group access to an API [0,1]. His response was just that they'd decided against moving forward with it -- not sure of the specifics but they had at least gotten that ball rolling at one point before deciding to focus on other things, would be interesting to hear more about that decision. [0] https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/square-client-api/c0rdiYryXJk https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/square-client-api/c0... [1] https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/square-client-api/7xFFwUotJNY https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/square-client-api/7x...

rahimnathwani 12y ago

You'd have to have a really large part of the acquiring market, if you hope to get consumers to use your new card brand. The idea of Square doing tang seems similar to the idea of imo.im getting people to use their own IM network in preference to the popular third party ones they already support. It might be doable but there would need to be a hook for cardholders, like cash back, loyalty points, analytics etc.