Square個案之行動付費平台策略分析

Abstract

智慧型手機近年來蔚為風潮，手機相關的衍生應用是各家廠商積極搶入的方向。其中，行動付費服務被預測在2015年將達到六千七百億美元的市場規模(Juniper Research, 2011)，因而引起了電信業者、手機廠商、信用卡公司、電子商務廠商等的積極發展。新創公司Square Inc.在近端行動付費模式領域裡，提供創新的交易方式，引起廣大注目，以及吸引許多大廠爭相模仿。 本研究的主要目的在分析Square行動付費平台的商業模式和平台發展策略。以Catalyst的平台架構與觸媒概念做為理論依據，先探討行動付費產業市場的發展現況，接著進一步分析Square在美國市場商業模式與發展策略，以及與其競爭者PayPal, Intuit, VeriFone, NCR的競爭狀況，並針對Square未來發展提出分析與建議。 本研究發現Square的創新在於結合新科技與舊產品，沒有改變太多消費行為，雖然現在保有先進者優勢，但由於商家與消費者的低轉換成本和此領域較低的進入障礙，取得近端行動付費市場的決勝關鍵由交易模式轉換成難以快速模仿的相關配套。若Square不能吸引大量的商家和消費者，成功建立正向網路效應，最後容易淪為價格戰或使用者大量流失至競爭者。此外，未來若信用卡制度被取代，Square將會走入歷史。

Smartphones have been widely spread these years and many companies dedicate themselves to develop mobile applications. Among all possible applications, mobile payment services are highly valued. The market size of mobile payment services is forecasted to reach 67 billion dollars by 2015. (Juniper Research, 2011). Network operators, mobile phone manufacturers, financial institutions, software developers, and new comers are all working aggressively to develop their own mobile payment services. One of the new comers, Square Inc.,developed a new mode of proximity mobile payment. It gained lots of attention from the public; therefore, many companies tried to copy Square’s way to offer similar product and services. The goal of this research is to analyze the business model and the platform strategies of Square. Using multi-sided platform and Catalyst Code’s 6-step framework, this paper analyzes the mobile payment industry and also studies Square’s business models as well as their current US market development. This paper compares the differences among Square and PayPal, Intuit, VeriFone and Square. In the end, this paper will make recommendations based on the analysis. This paper finds that Square offers the product which combines the new mode and the exsiting product and it doesn’t change a lot in customer behavior. Although Square seems to keep the first-mover advantage now, merchants and customers are easily inclined to choose other products provided by competitors due to low switch cost. The key to win the competition is to build killer applications. Without binding sufficient users, Square can’t create positive network effect. In the end, Square can’t keep its own unique advantage.