No, I'm really not. All I'm saying is it's a similarly audacious, capital-intensive strategy that can only happen in very favorable capital markets.
It's worth looking at how PayPal tried to steer towards profitability in later days, though. They basically became more evil. When paying merchants, they try to trick you into preferring ACH transfers direct from your checking account over using your credit/debit card. The former has weaker consumer protections, no rewards and risks overdraft fees, but lets PayPal keep almost all of their 2.9% + $0.30 fee, since ACH costs just pennies.
Not saying Square is going to become evil. Just saying they'll have to figure out how to break even with it eventually, because right now there's a built-in operational loss that scales with usage.
It's worth looking at how PayPal tried to steer towards profitability in later days, though. They basically became more evil. When paying merchants, they try to trick you into preferring ACH transfers direct from your checking account over using your credit/debit card. The former has weaker consumer protections, no rewards and risks overdraft fees, but lets PayPal keep almost all of their 2.9% + $0.30 fee, since ACH costs just pennies.
Not saying Square is going to become evil. Just saying they'll have to figure out how to break even with it eventually, because right now there's a built-in operational loss that scales with usage.