Tag: square

Starbucks turns to venture capital, invests big in game-changer Square

I’ve been a big fan of Square from the beginning, mostly because I hate the cashier’s line. I even gave a talk at Ignite DC called, “The Future of the Queue”, though I spent all my time bashing the very old, and expensive technology that cashier’s use:

 

 

Lol, $300+ dollars just to read a credit card 다운로드! Did you know that Square gives away this technology for free?

I repeat “gives it away for free.” It’s no wonder that the company is rumored to be valued at $3.2 billion 다운로드.

How do they make their money, through fees, of course. From Square:

 

Transparent Pricing

  • 2.75% per swipe 워드 글씨체 다운로드.
  • Free app, free Square Card Reader and free shipping.
  • No merchant account, monthly fees or set-up costs.

Next-Day Deposits

  • Payments in your bank account the next business day
  • Payments automatically sent for deposit to your bank with email confirmations 다운로드.
  • No limit to the number or amount of payments you can take.

 

I’ve done some small business transactions and I know that these fees are big business 아이펀박스 다운로드. If you think about skimming off nearly 3% from every credit transaction we are talking about billions of dollars. In 2006, a study found that we spend nearly $1 trillion on credit each year (pdf) 다운로드.

That may explain why Starbucks, a coffee company, is playing venture capital by investing in Square. Though, many are speculating that the reason is to improve the “Starbucks experience” which I guess means giving baristas iPads and smartphones like the Apple Genius have 아트머니 다운로드.

It’s possible, but I’m very skeptical, it’s more likely that Starbucks is looking to cut back-end costs associated with credit transactions and that is something Square does very well 시원스쿨 동영상 다운로드. A few pennies per transaction is a lot of money for the big corporation.

Not to mention that Starbucks already has a strong mobile payment solution that “about 1 million people a week are using” out of 60 million transactions a week 다운로드. 

It’s definitely an interesting story and one that spells big changes for the payments industry. Some good articles on this topic:

 

 

Continue reading Starbucks turns to venture capital, invests big in game-changer Square

Most Epic Photos: Tank Man

from Wikipedia

The incident took place near Tiananmen on Chang’an Avenue, which runs east-west along the south end of the Forbidden City in Beijing, on June 5, 1989, one day after the Chinese government’s violent crackdown on the Tiananmen protests 어쩌다 계약기사 다운로드.

The man placed himself alone in the middle of the street as the tanks approached, directly in the path of the armored vehicles. He held two shopping bags, one in each hand 다운로드. As the tanks came to a stop, the man gestured towards the tanks with his bags.

In response, the lead tank attempted to drive around the man, but the man repeatedly stepped into the path of the tank in a show of nonviolent action 다운로드.

After repeatedly attempting to go around rather than crush the man, the lead tank stopped its engines, and the armored vehicles behind it seemed to follow suit 다운로드. There was a pause for a short period of time with the man and the tanks having reached a quiet, still impasse.

Having successfully brought the column to a halt, the man climbed onto the hull of the buttoned-up lead tank and, after briefly stopping at the driver’s hatch, appeared in video footage of the incident to call into various ports in the tank’s turret 쿵푸팬더 3 다운로드.

He then climbed atop the turret and seemed to have a short conversation with a crew member at the gunner’s hatch. After ending the conversation, the man alighted from the tank 다운로드. The tank commander briefly emerged from his hatch, and the tanks restarted their engines, ready to continue on.

At that point, the man, who was still standing within a meter or two from the side of the lead tank, leapt in front of the vehicle once again and quickly reestablished the man–tank standoff 안드로이드 순정롬 다운로드.

Video footage shows that two figures in blue attire then pulled the man away and disappeared with him into a nearby crowd; the tanks continued on their way 다운로드. Eyewitnesses disagree about the identity of the people who pulled him aside. Jan Wong is convinced the group were concerned citizens helping him away jsp db 파일.

showing his hesitation...I think the full video shows a man angry in a momentary rage, not sure of how far to push things..what do you think?

The Video

Etc 다운로드.

YouTube also features a documentary on this moment, check out the playlist.

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A lego recreation from Flickr user Balakov

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Modern day Tiananmen Square