Square要上市了，它经历了怎样非凡的自我进化？

    重振

    从今年年初开始，一个新战略在Square逐渐成型。除了继续通过信用卡支付获得收入外，Square还推出了一些商家愿意买单的重要功能，比如开发票、现金预付、预约安排、营销功能、业务数据分析等等，从而形成了新的收入来源。

    时至今日，Square面向企业的服务种类已经超过了面向消费者的服务，其中包括点对点支付应用Square Cash，以及该公司去年刚刚收购的食品速递服务Caviar。而且这些服务也获得商家好评。消息人士对《财富》称，向小企业提供现金预付服务的Square Capital的表现已经超过了预期。Square公司最近称，去年它已经向2万多家企业贷出1亿美元资金。单单今年4月，Square Capital就预付了近2500万美元资金。

    《华尔街日报》的报道称Square的利润非常稀薄，但根据《财富》去年通过内部文件掌握的数据，Square的利润率高达34%，非常健康。在一笔100美元的交易中，Square可以获得3美元的手续费，Square会将这笔钱记为收入，从中赚取大约1美元的毛利润。该公司去年处理了约300亿美元的交易，由此算来，它去年的毛利润应为3亿美元左右。

    换句话说，如今的Square更像是一家金融服务公司，而非消费产品公司。由此可以想象，该公司即将做出一系列战略决策。

    上市

    由于无法获得该公司的具体收入、利润和支出，我们依然很难断言作为一家企业，Square到底有多健康。这就是为什么Square上市的可能性如此令人好奇。等它的S-1表格最终发布后，我们将会看到那些数字，但应该指出的是，是否发布有关数据的决定权还是在Square手中。（根据《促进新兴企业法案》的要求，直到IPO路演前的21天，Square才必须公开上市申请文件。）

    多尔西现在又开始在观众和媒体面前的频繁露面，Square公司也开始重新定位，强调它的愿景是成为一家数据型商家服务公司。Twitter的转型也给多尔西的形象带来了一定裨益。Twitter甚至宣布，在迪克·科斯特罗离任后，多尔西将兼任Twitter的过渡期CEO，这个消息再次将多尔西放在聚光灯之下。（Twitter的CEO遴选委员会已经排除了多尔西永久性兼任Square和Twitter公司CEO的可能性。由于Square已经申请IPO，多尔西不大可能会为了Twitter而放弃自己在Square的权杖。）

    上周二，自信且诚恳的多尔西主持了他在Twitter的首次收益电话会议，这也是一次极好的预习机会，因为将来的某一天，他也会在公开上市的Square公司主持同样的会议。多尔西的支付公司还有很长的路要走，特别是他还要向华尔街证明，Square是一家具有可持续发展实力的公司。现在看来，Square早期的坎坷和波折更加坚定了它的决心，也使它的目标更加明确。2015年的Square与2010年大不一样了。这是件好事。（财富中文网）

    译者：朴成奎

    审校：任文科

    Refocus

    Earlier this year, a newish strategy began to take form at Square. In addition to collecting revenue from credit card payments, Square focused on new ways to make money by introducing new, related features that merchants would pay for: invoicing, cash advances, appointment scheduling, marketing features, and slicing and dicing business data, among others.

    Today at Square, business-focused services outnumber those for consumers, among them the peer-to-peer payments app Square Cash and Caviar, a food delivery startup it acquired last year. And they’re doing well with merchants: Sources tell Fortune that Square Capital, which offers cash advances to small businesses, is exceeding expectations. Square said recently that it has loaned $100 million to more than 20,000 businesses over the past year. In April, Square Capital advanced nearly $25 million in capital.

    And then there are the numbers that contradict the Journal report that margins are slim. As Fortune learned from internal documents last year, Square’s margins are a healthy 34%. On a $100 transaction, the company takes a cut of about $3, which it records as revenue and from which it earns about $1 in gross profit. Last year, the company processed about $30 billion in transactions annually, which would put its gross profit at an annual rate of about $300 million.

    In other words, Square today is more of a financial services company than a consumer product company—a harbinger for strategic decisions to come.

    Taking its public turn

    It remains difficult to ascertain just how healthy Square is as a business without knowing its exact revenues, profits, and expenditures. That’s why the possibility of it making a public offering is so tantalizing. We’ll see those numbers when its Form S-1 is eventually released—a decision, it should be noted, that is controlled by Square. (Until 21 days before its IPO roadshow, that is, when the JOBS Act requires Square to release the document to the public.)

    Dorsey appears to have resumed his appearances in front of audiences and the press, and the company has repositioned its message to emphasize its vision as a data-focused merchant services company. That presence has been bolstered by transition at Twitter; the company’s announcement that Dorsey would become interim CEO following the departure of Dick Costolo thrust Dorsey into the spotlight once again. (Twitter’s CEO search committee has ruled out the possibility that Dorsey could run both Twitter and Square permanently, and now that the latter has filed for an IPO, he’s unlikely to vacate that role.)

    On Tuesday, a confident and refreshingly candid Dorsey led his first Twitter earnings call, a practice run of sorts for the man that may one day lead the same call at a publicly traded Square. Dorsey’s payments company still has a long road ahead, especially when proving to Wall Street that it has a sustainable business. But it appears that Square’s early difficulties in the limelight have fortified its resolve and clarified its purpose. Square in 2015 looks a lot different than Square in 2010. And that’s a good thing.