Tencent, one of China's largest online retail and technology organizations, has seen profits from the mobile sector soar over the past several months. The company has long held a strong place in the mobile space, but has only recently begun to heavily involve itself therein through social media, gaming, and commerce. As the company continues to grow, it is beginning to become more cavalier with its mobile interests, launching new initiatives and services that are meant to enthrall mobile consumers throughout China. Tencent is currently valued at over $120 billion, making it one of the largest and most influential business …

Pinterest users should be prime targets for marketers' budgets, with many of these consumers being early adopters who love to try and buy new things yet are increasingly difficult to reach on traditional media outlets, according to a new report from Ahalogy. With Pinterest having just introduced its first paid advertising product, Promoted Pins, the report reveals some important marketing opportunities for brands. For example, 52 percent of daily Pinterest users are pulling up the app in-store to guide their purchases.

It should come as no surprise that U.S. consumers are becoming increasingly tech-savvy, especially when it comes to handheld devices. However, recent research from Forrester shows just how comfortable American shoppers are with the idea of buying items not just online, but from their smartphone or tablet. According to a Forrester study released earlier this week, m-commerce is expected to nearly double in four years, largely driven by consumers using tablets. Currently, those devices are the more popular shopping tool that consumers use, with $76 billion of transactions occurring on tablets this year, compared to $38 billion on smartphones.

Apple has entered into a partnership with China UnionPay concerning a new mobile payments service. This may be a big move for Apple, who has been somewhat cautious with its participation in the mobile commerce field. Apple has been keen to avoid some of the pitfalls that its counterparts have fallen victim to with their own mobile commerce endeavors. In partnering with China UnionPay, Apple may be ready to break into the mobile payments space more aggressively. The new service will allow people throughout China to make payments from their iOS devices. Using the service, consumers can make payments at …

Mobile gift cards are experiencing a major growth spurt, especially in the most digital and cultural cities of North America, where several restaurants and bars in San Francisco including Dosa, Yank Sing, St. Vincent, Nice Ventures' Terzo, Rose's Caf, Rose Pistola and Michael Chiarello's Coqueta have all developed relationships with mobile gifting service Gratafy. Recently announcing the addition of 600 new gift items to its digital network of merchant partner storefronts, Gratafy users can now select from more than 2,500 menu items from eateries and bars expansive in Seattle, Chicago, Los Angeles, and now San Fran.

Birds Eye's new concept restaurant, The Picture House, enables customers to settle the bill by sharing Instagram pictures of their food. Birds Eye's initiative seeks to build the brand on social media after research found that 52 percent of diners regularly photo document their meals. The strategy is in support of a new line of products called Inspirations.

Square is ditching its Wallet app and replacing it with Order--a new mobile payments app that allows customers to purchase products before entering the store. Order will enable customers to pay for food, beverages and other products ahead of time to avoid waiting in-store. An article on Gigaom says you can pay for a meal at a restaurant--including tip--before you even sit down. This app is comparable to Square's Pickup--a program also focused on ordering goods ahead of time. The difference lies in Order's "location-aware" design, according to Gigaom, which tracks the coordinates of the user and suggests local businesses …

According to a recent report from BrightWire, a New York-based global investment newsier, it is likely that Apple will be adding NFC technology into its next generation iPhone. The BrightWire report, which obtained information from a "source close to the matter", revealed the deal that was made between the two companies would enable iPhone users to download the bankcard company's application to Passbook, giving users the power to make NFC payments on more than 3 million of the bankcard's "QuickPass" POS machines in China.

Executives at processor Total System Services can't predict which of the many existing mobile payments technologies will dominate the payments landscape of the future, but they plan to aggressively go after the processing business that follows. "I don't know who is going to win in mobile payments, but we sure are going to benefit from it," said Dan Henry, CEO of TSYS' NetSpend prepaid card business, at the processor's May 13 analyst day in New York. As more shopping takes place on e-commerce and mobile commerce sites, it will become much harder to live a cash-only lifestyle, he noted. "Ninety …

Last summer, mobile commerce startup Boxed launched its app to enable customers to buy wholesale goods and have them shipped to their doors. With ultra-fast growth over the last several months, the company has raised a $6.5 million round of funding designed to help accelerate things even further. The idea behind Boxed is pretty simple - give users access to the same types of wholesale deals they would find at warehouse retailers like Sam's Club or Costco, but without having to worry about annual membership fees or actually driving back and forth from one of those places to lug their …