Square Launches 'Terminal' For Card and Mobile Payments
*By Bridgette Webb*
Square wants to revamp those drab credit card readers.
The San Francisco-based company on Thursday debuted the Square Terminal, a new all-in-one hardware device that enables businesses to accept all physical debit and credit cards and mobile payments through Apple ($AAPL) Pay, Google ($GOOGL) Pay, Samsung Pay, and NFC.
"It's a great combination of our amazing payment service and combines it with hardware that's integrated all in one ー beautiful and exactly the technology all kinds of business need," Jesse Dorogusker, Square's hardware lead said in an interview on Cheddar.
"It's all set up to replace all terminals and legacy terminals out there."
The Terminal costs $399 and carries a 2.6 percent and 10 cent transaction fee for every payment. Square ($SQ) is offering a $300 credit as an incentive for businesses to switch over.
The device broadens the scope of company's suite of products, which includes the counter-top Square Register ($999) aimed at larger retailers, the small Bluetooth card reader ($49) for mom-and-pop shops, and a free magnetic stripe reader.
The launch also comes about a week after the company said long-time CFO Sarah Friar would step down to become the CEO of social network Nextdoor. Her departure shook investors in the company ー shares fell 20 percent in the two days after the news.
But Dorogusker isn't worried.
"Sarah is a tremendous leader, we are really excited for her," he said.
"She's had a lifelong dream of being a CEO, and I know she will be a great executive at the helm. We have a lot of confidence in our ambitions, momentum, and the performance of this team."
For full interview [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/square-launches-new-device-for-credit-cards-and-mobile-payments).
One month after its launch, new streaming venture CNN+ announced it was shutting down. Seth Schachner, the managing director of StratAmericas and digital business executive, joined Cheddar News to talk about the high-profile media flop. "That's a really, really different beast than what HBO Max is, which is video streaming, entertainment features," he said. “It's a tough sell when you really look at these things in the cold light of day as to whether or not they actually fit together."
Meta wants creators to make money from the metaverse, but it's going to take a large chunk of the cut. The tech giant is planning to keep nearly 50% of all digital asset sales within Horizon Worlds, the virtual reality platform that's considered an integral part of the company's unfolding metaverse. Rolf Illenberger, Co-founder and Managing Director of VRdirect, joined Cheddar to discuss why Meta is taking heat for this move, and what it could be doing as an alternative to help support creators, small businesses, and consumers.
Grayscale recently launched its Future of Finance ETF ($GFOF) for investors to benefit from innovative businesses that it sees as critical to building the digital economy. CEO Michael Sonnenshein joined Cheddar to discuss the fund, companies making the most impact, and ways in which investors can expand holdings in the digital economy. “When we think about how investors should be building out their portfolios, we felt that there was a really important opportunity to also provide investors with access to the broadly defined digital economy, really, that confluence between technology and finance," he said.
