Will Square’s 1 Million Merchant Achievement Give It the NFC Edge over ISIS, Google Wallet?

December 14, 2011

Square continues to make headlines and reach new milestones. Last month, company head Jack Dorsey revealed the San Francisco-based mobile payment startup was processing more than $11 million daily. And recently, Square landed its first carrier promotion, joining up with T-Mobile for an offer around its new Pro 4G smartphone plan.

Today, Dorsey announced via his other hit startup, Twitter, that more than 1 million merchants are now using Square’s mobile card reader to accept payments.

“Just as small businesses are growing with Square, we’re growing with them: Over 1 million merchants now accept credit cards via Square,” the company said on Twitter.

(Related: Square Beware! The Mobile Card Reader with 3x More Device Coverage)

Square had been registering merchants at a monthly rate of 30,000 to 50,000, reports VentureBeat.

The company last month also made a major update to the company’s Card Case mobile payment app.

(Related: Look Mom, No Hands: Square Takes Card Out of Updated App)

The “automatic tabs” feature, powered by the iPhone iOS5’s location-based technology, recognizes when a user is near a venue that accepts payments via Square. If both the merchant and customer have the Square app, the consumer can just say his or her name to complete the purchase, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The revamped Card Case app also now works in conjunction with Twitter, permitting merchants to view customer comments.

“During the next few years, Square will be heavily competing with Google Wallet, Isis, Sequent, and other NFC-related services that will be directly connected to smartphones,” reports VentureBeat. “But having a clear 1-million-merchant head start will certainly give Square an edge.”

Square funding is now at $137.5 million, the VentureBeat added, noting that the company was valued at $1 billion after a third round of funding led by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.

Also this week, ROAM Data, the company behind most of the encrypted mobile card readers shipped in the past year, and the leading mCommerce platform-as-a-service provider, announced today that it has launched its latest secure mobile card reader, the G3X. The G3X is ROAM’s third generation mobile reader and their best to date, it supports hundreds of devices, from iOS, Android and Blackberry, to PCs and Macs, covering three times more devices than all other competing readers combined.

ROAM Data’s ROAMpay swipe product, being distributed by its partner Intuit, is now available in Verizon Wireless’s 2,300 retail stores. Intuit produces the mobile card reader Intuit GoPayment.

(Analysis: Hip to be “Square?” Why Visa Thinks So)