Investors Shouldn't Discount Square's International Aspirations

As successful as Square (SQ 2.32%) has been, investors may think this brand is well known globally. But that's not the case. With only a single-digit revenue share outside of the U.S., its seller's software and cash app businesses are just getting started. On a Fool Live episode recorded on April 28, Fool contributors Brian Stoffel and Brian Withers discuss the company's latest international moves and why it can ultimately be successful in the markets it enters.

Brian Withers: I'm going to cover Square, SQ. Earlier, Square didn't have earnings yet. Their next results are first of week of May. But they announced that they are going to be opening up to sellers in Ireland for an early access program, which is really just a little bit of the early phases of its international expansion. They said that merchants who enroll in this program can get started with Square's products in just a few days with no long-term contracts or start-up fees and qualify for free Square hardware. It expects to launch its products for general availability in Ireland later in 2021.

This announcement really made me look at how much of Square's revenue actually comes from the U.S. Last fiscal year, excluding Bitcoin sales, international revenue was $311 million, or just 6 percent of the total. The company has operations in Canada, Japan, Australia, the United States, and soon to be Ireland. It currently has a $100 billion on the seller side and $60 billion on the cash app side in addressable market. But most of that is in the U.S. It's well underpenetrated in its current addressable market less than about 3%. I'm going to watch this continued globalization and see how they rebound with the seller segment as the economy picks back up.

Brian Stoffel: Square has always been one that I feel like I just missed. In fact I'm pretty sure Brian pitched it to me when we met in person, Brian Feroldi, the last time we were all in D.C. But when we're looking internationally, I'm wondering what makes you think that Square can meet success? There is already some big multinational companies that have options out there, but there's also homegrown ones. What's going to drive Square's success internationally?

Withers: I think just its success domestically and the fact that it's had 12 years to build a solid set of products, is really going to help. It's already competing against familiar names like Shopify and Wix here domestically and probably a lot of smaller players too. Its seller's platform is actually made up of 30 distinct hardware, software, and financial services products. Last year, its sellers in just the regions that it's in drove a $112 billion in gross payment volume. That was up 12% year over year. Its sellers wouldn't be generating that kind of volume [of sales] through the platform if the platform was mediocre. On the cash app side, the company is not above doing acquisitions. It purchased Verse as a P2P [person to person] payments segment. That's a company out of Spain that works across Europe. But it's got three billion in cash and cash equivalents on the balance sheet and I look for it to continue to invest in growth both domestically and internationally.