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Amazon debuts mobile payment app
Photo
This product image provided by Amazon shows Amazon Local Register, the company’s new credit-card processing device and mobile app designed to help small-business owners accept payments through their smartphones and tablets.
Associated Press
NEW YORK
Amazon is taking direct aim at mobile-payment systems such as Square by introducing the Amazon Local Register, a credit-card processing device and mobile app designed to help small-business owners accept payments through their smartphones and tablets.
The move places the largest U.S. e-commerce retailer in competition with Square and other established mobile-payment- processing systems such as PayPal Here and Intuit’s GoPayment.
Amazon’s technology includes a card reader that attaches to a smartphone, Kindle or tablet. The reader processes credit- or debit-card payments via a secure Amazon network, the same one that processes Amazon.com purchases. The service is designed to serve on-the-go small-business owners who otherwise might accept only cash or checks, including massage therapists, food-truck operators and artists who sell their work at outdoor fairs.