PayPal launched PayPal Here, a small business mobile payment system, in 2012. The product did not take off as expected so the market was still mostly dominated by Square. The purchase of iZettle for an astounding $2.2 billion could be PayPal’s second attempt to come into more direct competition in the small-scale business payments sector with Square. Two companies are already in competition in many ways including P2P money transfers.
iZettle is a Sweden based financial technology company for small businesses. It offers small-scale merchants payment services and points of sale. iZettle has developed a chip-card reader, which gives merchants the ability to accept payments through their mobile phones. This is especially convenient for small businesses that do not want to invest in any additional equipment or processing. Using iZettle retailers can accept Visa, MasterCard, and American Express cards. In 2016 the company introduced a card reader able to accept payments contactless payments by connecting to the device via Bluetooth.