Another masterpiece of Square:twitter founder Jackdorsey

That's where square comes in.

In February 2009, Jim McKelvey left his tech company to do another job because one of his clients wanted to buy his idea but he couldn't accept the credit card payment and then he called his friend Jack Dorsey to talk about this. PayPal and other governing payment systems are imperfect and lost opportunities.

A few days later, McKelvey moved to San Francisco and began to work with Dorsey and Tristan O ' Tierney, eventually becoming square today. They spent one months building prototypes, Dorsey in charge of server backend, O ' Tierney for iphone apps and McKelvey for hardware and contact with payment partners.

December 2, 2009, Dorsey a push to announce the official birth of square.

What's Square?

Square is a magnetic small square device (similar to a reader but not) that can be plugged into an iphone headphone jack, which reads the data from the credit card and converts it to a sound signal when it's on the card reader. The iphone's microphone is then used to identify the sound and send it to the processor and send it to Square's app on the iphone, from which encrypted data communicates with the square back-end server via WiFi or 3G networks and eventually pays.

Of course, the square user needs to verify and bind a bank account, which is similar to PayPal, Dorsey said they are trying to shorten the verification process from a few days to a few minutes, the next payment process is similar to PayPal, you can through text messages or mail to confirm payment.

Square is so small that the user can hang it on the key and plug it into the phone's headphone jack so it can work with almost any mobile device: Android,blackberry,symbian or even a computer. "As long as we have the software for that device, our card reader is available." "Dorsey said. Currently, they only support iOS devices.

Who does square do it for?

Square is a tool that businesses and consumers can use. Verifone a credit card terminal needs 900 dollars, now, as long as consumers or businesses have a 299-dollar ipod Touch is enough, if, according to Dorsey's vision, the future of users on Android devices can also be used, then his cost will be greatly reduced, so it seems that The users of square, of course, are mainly individuals or small businesses.

The square scanner price is 9 USD 95, but the user can obtain 10 USD square credit after registering, and the application is free. It is also noteworthy that if you register an account with the square website, the reader is free, and each transaction charges only 2.75% for the merchant. In addition, you can now buy a black scanner (previously only white).

Dorsey is very ambitious about personal (people-to-people) payment systems, "We've achieved the entire payment process and we want to build a new (personal, personal) payment system", which he hopes will be as convenient as the use of plastic bags for people using their mobile phones and shopping every day.

Square development process

1, Apple Store open square

On April 17, Square confirmed an agreement with Apple to sell square devices at Apple's online stores and physical stores.

When the ipad 2 tablet was released earlier this year, Apple CEO Steve Jobs showed square technology, but for square, the ability to sell equipment at Apple's online stores and physical stores was significant.

2. Square walks into Wal-Mart

In late October, Square founder Jack Dorsey disclosed that Square's credit card reader would be sold in Wal-Mart across the United States. After the square device was stationed at Wal-Mart, the square equipment retail outlets in the United States broke through 9,000, which would have a significant boost to the promotion of mobile payments.