Mobile's role in social media blew past brands relying on the medium to simply build their Facebook and Twitter presences in the first half of this year, with forward-thinking initiatives from Coca-Cola, Victoria's Secret and Dunkin' Donuts. Facebook, Pinterest, Tumblr and Twitter all significantly pumped up their mobile offerings for brands in the first half of 2013 as mobile inches closer to being the primary way that consumers access social media content. At the same time, brands have also used mobile and social in tandem to help campaigns scale and gain momentum.

American Express and Chase have announced that they will be furthering their partnership with Isis and offering their consumers new ways to make payments via the mobile wallet. American Express has introduced the product American Express Serve to Isis to let consumers pay bills and send money through the mobile wallet. Chase has announced that it will offer its credit cards in the mobile wallet nationwide, following successful pilots in Austin, TX and Salt Lake city, UT.

A survey of 1,000 smartphone users in Germany by Forsa for E-Plus brand Simyo found that 29 percent have already used their smartphones for shopping. The survey is part of Simyo's Mobile Life Index. Men (34%) are more likely to have used their devices for m-commerce than women (23%). Around half of m-commerce users are aged 25-34 years. Almost three quarters (72%) have used websites of online shops, and 53 percent have shopped for digital downloads.

Visa has been showing a great deal of attention to the emerging mobile payments scene in Asia. The region has become one of the most active places in the world when it comes to mobile commerce, largely due to the aggressive steps that retailers are taking and the growing proliferation of smartphones and tablets. Visa is one among several financial service firms that have been working to establish a strong presence in the mobile payments sector of Asia and the company sees a great deal of promise in several of the markets located within this region.

British m-commerce firm CloudZync has signed up 280 merchants for the launch of its mobile wallet, which will let customers pay for items straight from their phones, as well as integrate loyalty cards and access special offers. Once they have downloaded the free app (initially for iOS and Windows phones, with Android to follow) and loaded it with funds from their bank account, customers can open the wallet with a PIN and select the 'make payments' option at participating retailers.

Boston-based ROAM, which provides card readers and associated technology to power mobile commerce, is "projecting that we have a shot at surpassing Square in the next year or two," CEO Ken Paull said in an interview. The company has shipped roughly 2 million systems in the past four years, but we "don't have a brand like Square does," he said.

Merchants such as Best Buy, JCPenney and Adidas are using mobile check-ins on foursquare as a way to drive traffic into stores and help users save money during the back-to-school shopping season. Back-to-school is an important shopping event for merchants, and leveraging mobile can be a key way to engage with customers who are increasingly using their devices to assist with shopping-related activities. While interest in third-party mobile check-ins has waned somewhat, these merchants are leveraging foursquare as a way to drive incremental foot traffic.

Dick Smith Electronics is rolling out a QR code-centered mobile commerce system to modernize the shopping experience. In this new system, when a consumer scans a mobile bar code, she can buy an item immediately within the store's mobile application. Dick Smith Electronics partnered with Sniip to create the scan-to-buy technology.

Google is retooling its Wallet mobile commerce platform, halting support for gift and loyalty cards. "On August 21, 2013, we are ending the current NFC redemption of gift and loyalty cards added to Google Wallet," states a Google email sent Thursday to Wallet users. "If you've already redeemed your gift cards, you don't have to do anything. If you have a balance remaining and you'd like to spend it using the tap and pay functionality, you must do so by August 21st. If you still have the physical gift cards, they will continue to work even after August 21st. Please …

Mobile could reverse the woes that have buffeted the British high street, with a series of features on handsets such as loyalty cards, vouchers and wallets finally on the verge of mainstream acceptance. After years of operators and banks trying to get mobile payments to take off, a new white paper published by GSMA has detailed the potential role to be played by NFC and related technologies in 'bolstering bricks and mortar stores and boosting local economies'. The telecoms organisation said former attempts to make the technology work were confusing and unpleasant to consumers. The only way it