Howard Schultz, the chief executive of Starbucks, has called mobile payments “the fastest growing opportunity we’ve ever seen in terms of customer acceptance”. That explains why the coffee shop chain is investing in Square, the company led by Jack Dorsey (the co-founder of Twitter) that aims to become the default “wallet” service for mobile payments. The latest round of financing, to which Starbucks contributed, offers a clue as to how big an opportunity this business might be. The fundraising – some $200m – values Square at $3.25bn.
星巴克首席行政官霍華•舒茲(Howard Schultz)將手機支付稱爲「就客戶接受度而言我們所見過的成長最快的機遇」。這解釋了爲何這間咖啡連鎖店要投資Square公司——由Twitter聯合創辦人傑克•杜爾西(Jack Dorsey)領導，志在成爲手機支付默認「錢包」服務的供應商。最新一輪融資（星巴克也有貢獻）爲該業務可能成爲一項多麼重大的機遇提供了線索。此項籌資（約2億美元）對Square公司的估值達到32.5億美元。