Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) recently launched ‘Local Register’, a mobile point-of-sale service that combines a mobile app with a secure card reader, allowing small businesses to process digital transactions. As soon as people on the Street got the news, comparisons with Square Reader and PayPal Here started happening instantaneously as all these devices do nearly the same thing. Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) not only launched Local Register, but also declared the transaction rates for its platform, which are low enough to pose a serious threat to Square and PayPal.
Jon Steinberg, CEO, Daily Mail North America, discussed Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN)’s Local Register and whether Square and PayPal can compete with it, along with the ‘Squawk Alley’ team on CNBC, recently.
“[…] When you look at the 2% that Square takes and they only get a portion of that, it just doesn’t seem that lucrative, it just doesn’t seem that exciting. For Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) to go into this, I mean, everything, I guess, for them is a blocking move to make sure they have access to everything, no matter how low cost it could be. […],” Steinberg said.
Jon Fortt from CNBC believes that for Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) its not as much about the business in mobile point-of-sale service, as much it is about the data it can collect through this. According to him, if a lot of merchants start using this service from Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN), the company would be able to analyze the data it collects to see things like how many of its prime members buy from the local merchants which can be used by Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) in expanding its local operations.
“Local is such a grind, you look at every single company that is in this space and the struggles that they are having. I mean, look at Yelp, look at OpenTable, it’s brutally slow to do it […],” Steinberg added.
Disclosure: None
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