What Are Square’s Priorities in 2019?

Square (SQ) has three priority areas to focus on in 2019 as it seeks to continue driving revenue growth. These priority areas are strengthening omnichannel commerce, expanding access to financial services, and growing in existing international markets, the company said in a recent investor briefing document. In the past year, Square launched new products aimed at increasing access to financial services for consumers and small businesses, and also to enable merchants to complete a transaction anywhere, online or offline.

When it comes to international expansion, this is one area where Square still lags far behind its competitors such as PayPal (PYPL), Amazon (AMZN), Google, and Facebook (FB). At the moment, Square only operates in four international markets, namely Canada, Japan, Australia, and the United Kingdom. In contrast, PayPal operates in more than 200 countries. Amazon, Google, and Facebook also operate in hundreds of countries around the world. Square doesn’t seem to be in a hurry to expand all over the world but wants to ensure that it establishes strong operations in the current footprints first before it moves elsewhere.

Square generated $933 million in revenue in the fourth quarter, which ended in December, representing an increase of 51% YoY. PayPal and Amazon reported a revenue increase of 13% and 20% YoY, respectively, in the December quarter. Revenue rose 22% YoY for Google parent Alphabet (GOOGL) and 30% YoY at Facebook in the December quarter.