PayPal Here was announced last week as the competitor to Square, a mobile payment option for small businesses. It’s a new service that allows users to make secure transactions using a card reader that plugs into the coaxial jack on a smartphone.

PayPal Here has been available now for a week. How well has this new venture played out for the payment company? Anuj Nayar, director of communications for PayPal, wrote on the PayPal blog that they were receiving 1,000 sign-ups per hour in the first 24 hours after the announcement.

As we previously reported, the service is not only about the card reader as it also comes with the PayPal Here app. This allows the app to scan cards if the reader is not available. The app also accepts payments via PayPal, checks and invoices. PayPal Here charges 2.7 percent of every transaction via credit card whereas Square charges 2.75 percent.

Nayar also wants to remind everybody that PayPal Here is currently available to select merchants in the US, Canada, Australia and Hong Kong. The service will be available to other merchants in those countries next month. They currently have no timetable on when the service will be available outside of those countries.

As an added bonus, Nayar provided video of the launch event in San Francisco last week where PayPal president David Marcus announced PayPal Here.