The company behind mobile event app Applauze has raised $7.2 million from investors including True Ventures, m8 Capital and StubHub co-founder Jeff Fluhr, on the back of quick growth from selling tickets through its app, which launched in March of this year. Applauze"The early wave of apps were really hard to monetize," said True Ventures partner Jon Callaghan, who led the round. "But we're seeing a new generation of app commerce, led by Uber and eBay and Amazon." Though there are many mobile ticketing apps, Callaghan said he was betting on Applauze for the team's "great product sense" - they …

A Boku executive at the Media Tech Summit 2013 conference said that offline media including everything from billboards, print advertisements and television are still a new opportunity with mobile payments. The "Lightning Round: Why You Must Pay Attention - Mobile Payments Are Here To Stay" session gave attendees an overview of all the different types of mobile payments that are available to marketers. Additionally, the executive spoke about why mobile payments are more than simply a fad.

It has not been a terrific year for eBay, but more of a middling one. After years of restructuring the company and retooling its offerings, the e-commerce company seems to be hitting something of a soft patch that, while far from derailing its comeback, is taking a good amount of the wind out of it. eBay's stock is up 2% so far in 2013. Not bad in itself but lagging the Nasdaq's 30% gain in the same period. eBay rival Amazon is also up 30%, while other big-name tech companies have rallied even higher: Google up 40%, Yahoo up 72%, …

Given the publicity around showrooming, and ongoing threat to offline retailers posed by ecommerce, this is somewhat surprising. Especially as recent stats from Columbia found that 70% of 'mobile assisted shoppers' viewed products in-store, and then made their purchases online. These new stats are from the new Econsultancy/BuyDesire Mobile Marketing and Commerce Report 2013, which also explores the extent to which companies are committed to mobile, the channels and technologies they are using, and the challenges they face in improving their capabilities. It is based on a global survey of more than 500 Econsultancy users from companies and agencies, carried …

Custom couponing app Photopon is releasing version 2 of its iOS app, which lets consumers select nearby deals, attach a personal photo and write a message to create a personalized coupon that can be shared through the app, email, text messages or social networking sites. Using the iPhone's location services, Photopon presents a selection of deals from the nearest restaurants, bars, stores and venues. After choosing a deal, users can snap a photo, type in a message and then share the custom coupon through email, text messages, Facebook or Twitter. Recipients can redeem the coupon. Photopon offers deals from both …

Kohl's has unveiled its holiday marketing plan that centers around the retailer's iPhone application, possibly hinting at a larger mobile payments plan from the retailer in the future. Kohl's is focusing its holiday efforts around its branded app to integrate rewards and location-based offers this year as part of a broader focus on building out a more comprehensive mobile strategy. Kohl's is also one of the retailers involved in Merchant Customer Exchange, which is slated to roll out soon and will incorporate mobile payments into the participating retailers' point-of-sale systems.

Over the last few weeks, the combination of the groundbreaking mobile payments announcements made from Money2020 in Las Vegas and from the GSMA's NFC & Mobile Money Summit in New York have allowed a much clearer vision of the future of this technology to be formed. This has given the world the opportunity to see a much clearer vision of the future of mobile payments technology, with increasingly pervasive tech as well as a considerable cooperation from the industry. As was pointed out by the co-founder and CEO of Ensygnia (a visual pay technology), Richard Harris, m-commerce venders and retailers …

The growth in the ownership and usage of smartphones and tablets in the UK has helped to boost the number of purchases made online in recent months. But now, retailer John Lewis has predicted that m-commerce visitors will generate the majority of traffic for the first time on December 25th 2013. On Christmas Day each year, millions of Brits use the web to make purchases, because of course most high street outlets are closed and people usually have a lot of gift certificates and festive cash to spend. During this day in 2012, John Lewis reports that close to half …

Consumer use of smartphones and tablets incorporates a range of different activities and behaviours, including search, email, social and the mobile web. And a new survey has found that businesses are responding to this by developing their capabilities over a range of mobile channels. When asked which mobile channels they plan on using during the next 12 months just over half (55%) said apps, followed by mobile advertising (51%), optimised emails (50%) and tablet-specific sites (50%). Mobile search and commerce were also cited by precisely half (50%) of client-side respondents

Saks Fifth Avenue, in partnership with Stylewhile, has launched a new iPad App that allows users to fit clothing to their specific body type before purchase. Not only can users virtually 'try on' clothes, but they can also use the App to select various items from retailers to create and style complete looks with the touch of a button. "We're delighted to partner with Saks Fifth Avenue on the launch of Stylewhile, and to offer them full exclusivity at launch," said Stylewhile founder/CEO Jutta Haaramo. Both Stylewhile and Saks Fifth Avenue customers are women who love fashion and trying out …