Square announced that it would begin to support Apple’s Tap to Pay technology later this year, with a beta test arriving this summer as part of its Early Access Program.
If a company is using Square to process sales, it needs to use Square’s familiar dongle to receive payments. However, with support for Apple’s Tap to Pay, it should be able to process a big chunk of costs with nothing but an iPhone and the Square app.
The new program will let iPhone users pay with their phones within Square’s point of sale (POS) app.
Apple first announced Tap to Pay in February 2022 and first supported Square’s competitor Stripe. The partnership with Stripe also supports payments made in the Shopify POS app. The Tap to Pay feature is currently only available on iPhone models XS and later, and between that and requiring people to have cards or phones that support tapping to pay; the Square dongle might not be going away any time soon. Its appeal, for many vendors, is how it allows them to take in more forms of payment easily. However, for many Square users, the dongle might still be the best choice.
Square said in its press release that spots for its Early Access Program are limited and did not determine when the program would start, but you can sign up for the program right now on Square’s website.
Block, Inc., previously Square, Inc., is an American digital payments company and financial services based in San Francisco, California. The company was established in 2009 by Jack Dorsey and Jim McKelvey and founded its first venue in 2010. It has been exchanged as a public company on the New York Stock Exchange since November 2015 with the ticker symbol SQ.
Before December 10, 2021, the company was named Square, Inc. However, the company’s namesake outcome for small businesses is still titled “Square.” Square is a payments platform sought at small and medium enterprises that authorizes them to accept credit card payments and utilize tablet computers as payment registers for a point-of-sale system. In addition, Block has several other businesses. For example, Cash App is a mobile app that allows money transfers between users and between users and companies.
Afterpay is a buy-now-pay-later service. Weebly is a hosting web service. Tidal is subscription-based music, podcast, and video streaming service that offers audio and music videos.
The original motivation for Square occurred to Jack Dorsey in 2009 when Jim McKelvey was unable to satisfy a $2,000 sale of his glass faucets and fittings because he could not take credit cards.
Co-founders Dorsey—who also co-founded Twitter—and McKelvey started developing the company out of a tiny office in St. Louis. The name “Square” emanates from the company’s square-shaped card readers.
In October 2020, Square put roughly 1% of their total assets ($50 million) in Bitcoin (4,709 bitcoins), noting Bitcoin’s “potential to be a universal currency in the future” as their preliminary reasoning. The company bought an additional $170 million worth of Bitcoin (around 3,318 bitcoins) in February 2021, getting Square’s total holdings to almost $500 million in Bitcoin (approximately 8,027 bitcoins).
On March 2, 2021, Square agreed to obtain majority ownership in Tidal. Square will spend $297 million in cash and stock for Tidal, with Jay-Z joining the company’s board of directors. Jay-Z and other artists who presently own stock in Tidal will remain stakeholders.
On December 1, 2021, Square revealed that it would change its company name to Block, Inc. on December 10. The change was notified shortly after Dorsey resigned as CEO of Twitter. The name change took effect on December 10, 2021, and Square, Inc. evolved Block. However, on December 16, H&R Block sued the business for trademark violation, claiming that the name aims to confuse customers by misappropriating the Block brand name, which H&R holds.
On January 31, 2022, Block concluded its acquisition of Afterpay. Square is a payments forum aimed at small and medium businesses that allow them to take credit card payments and use tablet computers as payment registers for a point-of-sale system. In 2009, Twitter Co-Founder Jack Dorsey and fellow entrepreneur Jim McKelvey initiated Square, Inc.
Their goal was to create a POS technology that would group merchant services and mobile payments into one simple, smooth, and modern service. After seven rounds of private funding, Square, Inc. went public in 2015 under the ticker (SQ) on the New York Stock Exchange. Businesses in 8 countries can currently use Square’s Technology, and their POS systems can accept 130 internationally accepted currencies.
Afterpay is an Australian digital payment platform in which a bought product can be paid off in four installments. This idea, made in 2008 by then eighteen-year-old Nick Molnar, was geared towards millennials and inspired by the aftermath of the 2008 Global Financial Crisis. Molnar and Partner/ Co-founder Anthony Eisen launched their platform in 2014, and in four years, their product reached a market capitalization of around 3.3 billion dollars.
In February 2020, Afterpay was reported to have 3.6 million active customers in the US, 3.1 million in Australia and New Zealand, and 600,000 in the UK. In August 2021, Afterpay and Square announced that Square would acquire Afterpay. It paid $39 billion in stock for the acquisition, and the process was finalized in January 2022. Although, Block inc now owns Afterpay. Molnar and Eisen still spearhead Afterpay’s merchant and consumer businesses inside Square.