Square’s latest card reader, which enables merchants to accept payments from Apple Pay among others, means the US payments firm can move faster on its international rollout, said CEO Jack Dorsey.

Speaking on the firm’s first earnings call as a public company, Dorsey said the move to a new card reader, which accepts contactless and chip-and-PIN card payments, could lead to more debuts outside the US.

“One of the things I would point you to is our chip card and contactless reader is a global platform, it’s a standard and global technology. So, it allows us to move much, much faster around the world and we definitely have more markets in sight coming up,” said Dorsey.

To date, Square’s rollout has been pedestrian. It is available in the US, Canada, Japan and has just gone live in Australia.

The availability of a high profile rival such as Square, for instance in Europe, would offer a challenge to homegrown players.

The take up of the latest version of Square’s card reader was a positive sign in the Q4 results. Since the end of December 2015, Square has received 350,000 pre-orders for its latest card reader, which accepts payments from NFC-enabled smartphones, including Apple Pay and Android Pay. Demand has been aided by a launch promotion, which has now expired.

The company’s total quarterly revenue rose to $374 million from $251 million in the year-ago period. The software and data product unit, which generates higher margin than Square’s core payments business, saw a climb in revenue to $22 million from $6 million a year earlier.

Analysts also scrutinise the company’s gross payment volume (GPV). GPV is the total volume of card payments processed by the company on behalf of its clients. The company reported GPV of $10.2 billion, a 47 per cent year on year increase.

However, profitability remains elusive, at least for the moment. Its net loss widened to $48 million in Q4 from $37 million in the year-ago period, although sequentially it was an improvement on the $54 million loss in the three months to end-September 2015.