USA has Square, Sweden has iZettle, and now mPowa has launched its own mobile plug-in reader and app in the UK. The service created by the e-commerce venture, created in 2011, will be available to merchants and for customers to use from next month. It will be targeted at small businesses, as transaction costs will be 0.25% going to mPowa. Over in the US, Square has been valued at USD1 billion, and it has received investments from Visa and Virgin Media, so this release is promising for the UK company. In fact, Barclays has said it would send the devices to its small business customers.
The plug in reader works by swiping the card, and the transaction is finalised on the relevant smartphone, be it iOS, Android or BlackBerry. However, UK consumers are sure to find the issue of security being brought up. Let’s hope Square’s success in America will go some way towards convincing the public to adopt the new method, especially as mobile payments are still slow to take off. Square, on the other hand, has over 800,000 devices in use in USA.
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