Square began offering credit-card readers in 2009, which allow merchants to accept payments on mobile devices. Square originally targeted small businesses, but it now also sells a point-of-sale terminal for use in retail stores and has tools to help merchants sell online. The company charges a fee of 2.75 percent per transaction, along with free software.

Square competes with companies like EBay Inc.’s PayPal, Inuit, iTransact, and Shopkeep POS in the payments software space. In BIA/Kelsey’s Local Commerce Monitor™ (LCM) survey on advertising and marketing of small and medium businesses (SMBs), we asked SMBs about their usage of a mobile credit card swipe. 40% of respondents currently use one and an additional 16% said they are likely to adopt one for use within the next 12 months.

According to our Consumer Commerce Monitor (CCM) survey, consumers report using mobile phones and tablets to shop locally. We asked consumers how they find, engage and transact with local-serving businesses, including where they use their mobile devices. Consumers using smartphones report being far more likely to use their devices for local shopping while out of their homes, while consumers using tablets are far more likely to use their devices at home.

(Local Shopping means 25 mi radius from respondent’s primary residence)

When it comes to mobile payments via credit swipe, 42% of consumers say they have done so. The heaviest users are the 35-44 age group (45.4%) and Hispanics (48.9%).

35-44 yr olds local shopping characteristics:

• 64% perform their local shopping in store
• 28% perform their local shopping online
• 68% hold an associate’s degree or higher
• 50% household income ranges from $50,000 to $124,999

Hispanic local shopping characteristics:

• 57% perform their local shopping in store
• 31% perform their local shopping online
• 58% have an associate’s degree or higher
• 41% household income ranges from $50,000 to $ 124,999.

SMBs realize that more of their customers are going mobile and they are optimizing their presence to be more mobile as well. According to our LCM survey, almost 40% of SMBs reported that mobile marketing is a high priority in the next 12 months.

Check out BIA/Kelsey’s LCM page for more information.

The post Square’s Mobile Transactions Gives Company $5B Valuation appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.

After a short hiatus, our analyst roundtable series is back. Today we discussed Twitter’s IPO, ongoing valuation and the tone it has set for going public in today’s tech marketplace. Lots of buzz around Snapchat, NextDoor and others have followed in Twitter’s wake.

We also discussed our writings on variable pricing in local commerce. As the age of mobile collides with the age of big local, the opportunity arises to not only target ads with greater precision but also offer demand-driven product pricing. Think airfare pricing on steroids.

These will be ongoing topics, including our upcoming Leading in Local conference in San Francisco just three weeks away (email me for discount – mbolandATbiakelsey.com). Until then, check out the video below and ping us to engage around any of these topics.

The full video is embedded and the following chapter guide can take you to individual segments. Enjoy.

Roundtable chapters
— Airline Pricing Meets Local Commerce
— Can Twitter’s Performance Sustain Current Market Cap
— Quick, Everybody IPO
— NextDoor and the Neighborhood-Level Network Effect

The post Knights of the Round Table Return: Twitter Valuation and Airline Pricing Models appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.

Among the myriad questions swirling around Facebook’s imminent IPO (other than “when will it actually happen?”), the two most pressing are: 1) Can the social network actually support an assumed $100 billion valuation? and 2) How?

BIA/Kelsey sought to answer both by pairing financial modeling and strategic analysis. We recently published a comprehensive report exploring the financial drivers that can spur Facebook’s valuation, and the potential growth opportunities that it can unlock to build a business that meets the hype. The report can be purchased here.

Our takeaways: Yes, Facebook can eclipse $100 billion in fair market value, but to do so it must demonstrate strong revenue expansion while maintaining a robust EBITDA margin. This will necessitate rapid expansion of its existing advertising business, but also shifts into adjacent advertising sectors and even transformative new businesses such as off-network payments and content distribution/syndication. In other words, the path to $100 billion is far from straight.

This Wednesday, May 2, at 3 p.m. EDT, BIA/Kelsey analysts Matt Booth, Jeanne Dattilo and I will present our financial and strategic analysis in a public webinar. We’ll also welcome CEOs from high-profile companies that work closely with Facebook to share their vision for how the network will evolve its business, and the implications for the interactive local marketplace. Our guest speakers are:

– Victoria Ransom, CEO, Wildfire
– Niel Robertson, CEO, Trada
– Peter Vogel, Cofounder, Plink

You can register for the webinar here.

The post BIA/Kelsey Webinar: ‘Facebook’s IPO — The Valuation of the Decade?’ appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.