Groupon The Payment Processor?

Bloomberg’s Douglas MacMillan reports that Groupon is entering the payment processing business with a mobile reader comparable to those already on the market from Square and PayPal. The company behind the project has already developed credit card readers for Apple’s iPhone and iPod touch, and apparently is already testing the Groupon prototype across several retailers in the San Francisco Bay Area.

This is the latest offering in a recent series of small business and promotional tools recently launched by Groupon. Their latest releases include a mobile app with a live map that updates users with currently available, local promotions and an online calendar that lets service providers schedule their voucher redemptions and other services at no charge.

Though details of Groupon’s new service are still largely unknown, Bloomberg’s source suggests that the company plans to compete against entry-level merchant processing services that charge a fixed percentage for debit and credit card transactions.

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