Twitter icon wants to fix how fast-food does business
Twitter's creator says that with Square Register he plans to do for commerce what Twitter did for communication: simplify it.(Photo: File)
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 got 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."