Square to shut down food ordering app

Square is to shut down its food ordering app after an underwhelming response from the consumer marketplace.

  4 2 comments

Square to shut down food ordering app

Editorial

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The San Francisco-based company has been attempting to diversify its business away from a reliance on small merchants and into the consumer payments space.

Launched in May last year, Square Order displayed the menu from participating restaurants for user to choose their take-out before paying with Square and picking it up at the location.

Despite running trials of the service with a number of food outlets on its own turf, the commercial application never expanded beyond Blue Bottle locations in New York and San Francisco.

Three months after launch, Square signaled an alternative approach with the $90 million acquisition of San Francisco-based food delivery service Caviar.

In a statement on the shuttering of Square order released to the San Francisco Chronicle, the company says: "We are focusing our efforts on other tools and marketing services that help sellers grow their business, like online ordering, gift cards, or delivery with Caviar."

Square Order will officially shut up shop on 20 March.

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Comments: (2)

A Finextra member 

Yet another in a recent spurt of investments in food delivery and grocery delivery where Google, Amazon, eBay are spending millions while competing with new startups, retail and others. I'm not sure "Caviar" is an appropriate choice of brand for our time though - too reminiscent of Marie Antoinette, when a lot of people can't afford bread.

Ketharaman Swaminathan

Ketharaman Swaminathan Founder and CEO at GTM360 Marketing Solutions

If she were alive today, @MarieA would've come under the Silicon Valley buzz and exhorted her poor subjects to have caviar if they couldn't afford bread! So, Caviar may not be such a bad brand name after all:) On a side note, Square is proving to be another one-trick pony. First Square Wallet. Now Square Order. The company hasn't exactly distinguished itself with glory with anything other than its first product, SQUARE mPOS.

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