EFTA01377645.pdf

S- Our growth may not be sustainable and depends on our ability to retain existing sellers, attract new sellers, and increase sales to both new and existing sellers. Our total net revenue grew to $850.2 million in 2014 from $203.4 million in 2012 and to $892.8 million for the nine months ended September 30, 2015. from $599.3 million for the nine months ended September 30, 2014. We expect our rate of revenue growth will decline, and it may decline more quickly than we expect for a variety of reasons, including the risks described in this prospectus. Starbucks has announced that it will transition to another payment processor and will cease using our payment processing services altogether prior to the scheduled expiration of our payment processing agreement with them in the third quarter of 2016. As a result, our total net revenue may decrease meaningfully going forward. Our sellers and other users of our services have no obligation to continue to use our services, and we cannot assure you that they will. We generally do not have long-term contracts with our sellers, and the difficulty and costs associated with switching to a competitor may not be significant for many of our services. Our sellers' payment processing activity with us may decrease for a variety of reasons, including sellers' level of satisfaction with our products and services, the effectiveness of our support services, our pricing, the pricing and quality of competing products or services, the effects 25 Table of Content‘ of global economic conditions, or reductions in our sellers' customer spending levels. In addition, the growth of our business depends in part on existing sellers expanding their use of our products and services. If we are unable to encourage sellers to broaden their use of our services, our growth may slow or stop, and our business may be materially and adversely affected. The growth of our business also depends on our ability to attract new sellers, to encourage larger sellers to use our products and services, and to introduce successful new products and services. We have invested in new products and services, including Square Cash and Caviar, and will continue to invest in new products and services, but if those products and services fail to be successful, our growth may slow or decline. Our business has generated net losses, and we intend to continue to invest substantially in our business. Thus, we may not be able to achieve or maintain profitability. We generated net losses of $85.2 million, $104.5 million, and $154.1 million in 2012. 2013, and 2014. respectively. As of December 31, 2014, we had an accumulated deficit of $395.6 million. For the nine months ended September 30, 2015, we generated a net loss of $131.5 million. As of September 30, 2015. we had an accumulated deficit of $527.2 million. We intend to continue to make significant investments in our business, including with respect to our employee base; sales and marketing, including expenses relating to increased direct marketing efforts, referral programs, and free hardware and subsidized services; development of new products. services, and features; expansion of office space and other infrastructure: expansion of international operations; and general administration, including legal, finance, and other compliance expenses related to being a public company. If the costs associated with acquiring and supporting new or larger sellers materially rise in the future, including the fees we pay to third parties to advertise our products and services, our expenses may rise significantly. In addition, increases in our seller base could cause us to incur increased losses, because costs associated with new sellers are generally incurred up front, while revenue is recognized thereafter as sellers utilize our services. If we are unable to generate adequate revenue growth and manage our expenses, we may continue to incur significant losses and may not achieve or maintain profitability. We frequently make decisions that may reduce our short-term operating results if we believe those decisions will improve the experiences of our sellers, their customers, and other users of our products and services, which we believe will improve our operating results over the long term. These decisions may not be consistent with the expectations of investors and may not produce the long-term benefits that we expect, in which case our business may be materially and adversely affected. We, our sellers, our partners, and others who use our services obtain and process a large amount of sensitive data. Any real or perceived improper use of, disclosure of, or access to such data could harm our reputation as a trusted brand, as well as have a material and adverse effect on our business. We, our sellers, and our partners. including third-party data centers that we use, obtain and process large amounts of sensitive data, including data related to our sellers, their customers, and their transactions. This is also true of other users of our services, such as Square Cash and Square Payroll. We face risks, including to our reputation as a trusted brand, in the handling and protection of this data, and these risks will increase as our business continues to expand. Our operations involve the storage and transmission of sensitive information of individuals using our services, including their names, addresses, social security numbers, payment card numbers and expiration dates. bank account information, and data regarding the performance of our http://www.sec.gov/A rehi vestedgar/data/1512673AMS1119312515369092/d937622dsI a.htm[ 11/6/2015 7:37:12 AM] CONFIDENTIAL - PURSUANT TO FED. R. GRIM. P. 6(e) DB-SDNY-0074796 CONFIDENTIAL SDNY_GM_00220980 EFTA01377645