Square/Block Has Become Too Confusing a Company for its Own Good

Plus, a Q&A on crypto regulation.

Number of the Week: $24.1 billion (explanation below)

Square/Block Has Become Too Confusing a Company for its Own Good

Jack Dorsey does not use the term “super app” as often or as passionately as some of his competitors. But it’s clear that he buys into the strategy, at least for now. In Square/Block’s earnings call on August 4, Dorsey stressed the importance of providing multiple services to users.

[W]e want to make sure that we have diversity of utility. So we believe it's really important that people may come in for a particular reason, such as what we saw during the stimulus or just a peer-to-peer functionality that we've always provided. But in terms of retention and also new customer acquisition, it really has to do with like how much utility we're offering, that we're not just focused on one thing such as peer-to-peer transactions or investing or Bitcoin or lending, but it is a place, one place you can do all those things. And we see peers in other industries and other spaces and other countries that have done that very well, which is sometimes referenced as super apps or banks.

And we believe that over the long term, that is the right strategy, and that is both for the Cash App ecosystem and also the Square ecosystem. And more importantly, the fact that we have both of those in one company, we believe, is our superpower. 

That all sounds good, and certainly the company’s CFO Amrita Ahuja offered encouraging numbers about how the company has retained, say, customers who came to Square’s Cash App during the pandemic stimulus period by offering them small loans and other services.

But it is at least theoretically possible for Square/Block to add too many features.