PayPal Here's first day: 1,000 sign-ups per hour
Last week, PayPal introduced its new mobile payments solution that will compete directly with Square. The competition is getting fierce as PayPal Here grew at a rate of 1,000 new registrants per hour within the first 24 hours of availability alone.
Anuj Nayar, PayPal's director of communications, added on the official PayPal blog that "clearly there’s a need for a secure, global solution that provides small businesses the flexibility to get paid anytime, anywhere, any way."
To recap, PayPal Here is a familiar concept being that it is a mobile payments system that enables small businesses to accept payments using a small module attached to a smartphone.
The twist is that besides just accepting debit and credit cards using the encrypted card reader, the program can also use the smartphone's camera to scan and process cards or checks for added convenience.
For example, that would come in handy if the small business owner didn't have the thumb-sized module already to attach to a smartphone for whatever reason.
PayPal is also undercutting Square in one other small, but important regard that could add up significantly. PayPal Here only charges merchants 2.7 percent per transaction, but Square imposes a fee of 2.75 percent per transaction.
PayPal Here is currently available to select merchants in the United States, Canada, Australia and Hong Kong. The program will expand to include all other merchants in those countries next month.
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