Wednesday, March 9, 2011

While trying to go after Square, VeriFone shows its lack of mojo

"THIS JUST IN: YOUR SERVER AT A RESTAURANT CAN STEAL YOUR CC#, CCV and EXP!!!!!" @ethank


Public blows to competitors' brands are acceptable, especially if you're a long time contender who sees its lunch being taken away by a 2-year-old hyped newcomer. But the only thing VeriFone managed to do today is hurt its own brand; its focus on obscure security issues exemplifies how unversed it is in building a proper payments brand, the application it built raises ethical issues that their shareholders should be worried about and - last but not least - it managed to do it all without style. 


And style, anyone at Square will tell you, is key for building a brand in payments.


The only thing VeriFone might be able to do is raise some concerns with card associations. However, since Visa has openly endorsed the Square model, this too seems like a dead end. It's not that Square cannot face trust issues, and I have covered that in the past - but nothing is really incremental to existing setups. 


I suggest VeriFone focuses its efforts on building a truly compelling payment solution and compete for the attention of customers. That, and getting some tigerblood won't hurt either.

1 comment:

Safe ePayments Motivator said...

Wondering who will introduce this technology in India? Will it be Visa or some other company

Being a ePayments fanatic, looking forward to 'square', arrival in India.