The guy who created Twitter, Jack Dorsey, now wants to re-create the way fast
food does business.
Not with big shots such as McDonald's and Taco Bell, but with smaller fast-food
joints -- which make up about half of the nation's 210,000 so-called
quick-service restaurants, with sales exceeding $188 billion last year.
Today, Dorsey's free mobile payments point-of-sale system, Square Register, will
announce plans to update the business with special tweaks that will help
restaurants improve order accuracy. Among other things, the iPad-based system
will allow for improved customization -- and even allow customer names to be
attached to orders.
Dorsey says he plans to do for commerce -- particularly, fast-food purchases --
what Twitter did for communication: simplify it. He's got the full attention of
credit card giants Visa and MasterCard, which between them control an estimated
70% of the marketplace. New mobile payment options could help level the playing
field.
"Twitter has made communication really easy, simple and free, and Square will do
the same for commerce," says Dorsey, in a phone interview. Ultimately, he says,
his new point-of-sale system, "has the potential to carry all of commerce."
The target: smaller fast-food operators who can't afford costly technologies.
The goal: convince them they can save serious money by paying Square 2.75% per
credit card swipe, vs. the industry average of 4.36%. Plus, they don't have to
purchase pricey point-of-sale systems that can cost tens of thousands of
dollars. Those kinds of numbers can speak volumes in an industry in which profit
margins are being seriously squeezed.
"There's a tremendous number of fast-food operators dying to know how to make
technology more affordable," says Dennis Lombardi, executive vice president at
WD Partners, a restaurant consulting firm.
Currently, some 3 million merchants in the U.S. and Canada are using Square --
including 7,000 Starbucks locations. But Dorsey has big plans to expand way
beyond that.
"This will grow just as fast, if not faster, than Twitter," he projects.
He and other mobile payment providers have believers, too.
Among them is the National Restaurant Association. There's been virtually no
real innovation in the payment technology space for more than 60 years, says Liz
Garner, director of commercial and entrepreneurship at the restaurant trade
group. "This will help change that."
