As Hilton Worldwide rolls out its digital check-in function to more than 4,100 of its properties around the globe, more than one-third of guests are embracing the ability to use their mobile device to bypass the front desk. The digital check-in capability, which enables guests to choose their preferred room from digital floor plans or room lists available on mobile devices and laptops, has already seen wide success from guests that were able to use it at select hotels in 2014.

As its profits continue to drop, McDonald’s is turning to targeted mobile vouchers in a bid to salvage brand loyalty and drive in-store traffic as other food brands such as Dunkin’ Donuts and Starbucks go from strength to strength with their mobile rewards platforms. The fast food chain has inked a deal with mobile voucher developer VMob, previously known as VoucherMob, to begin rolling out more mobile offers to its customers in the United States.

Research group Acuity Market Intelligence has estimated that the revenues generated by biometric mobile payments will reach $33.3 billion by 2020. The mobile biometric marketplace is more complex, broadly based, and growing faster than previous forecasts indicated, said the firm in a statement, adding "Mobility is the driving force that will unleash the long awaited biometric revolution". The group said the $33.3 billion estimate includes 4.76 billion biometrically enabled smart mobile devices generating $6 billion in biometric sensor revenue and 4 billion biometric app downloads generating $20 billion in annual revenues from direct purchase and software development fees. There will …

Revenue that mobile commerce merchants lost to fraud spiked 70 percent in 2014 to 1.36 percent compared with 0.80 percent in 2013, according to a new report from LexisNexis Risk Solutions Inc. For comparison, all merchants lost 0.68 percent of revenue to fraud in 2014 in comparison to 0.51 percent in 2013. The study results show that m-commerce merchants accept an average of 4.5 payment channels, significantly more than the 2.6 channels accepted by all merchants. Those companies have more fraud exposure than other types of retailers, according to the study.

Two years after Apple stumbled during its high-profile rollout of Maps in iOS 6, the company has taken a low-key approach in its latest challenge to Google's geo-hegemony. On Tuesday, Apple with little fanfare introduced Maps Connect, a pair of location-based services for businesses that presents an alternative to Google+ Local. There's Maps Connect for Small Business, a free DIY business listing service that adds business information to Apple Maps, and Maps Connect for Indoors, a service to help businesses implement Apple's iBeacon indoor positioning technology at store locations.

I don't recall the very first time I opened the Shazam app. But I do remember back in the early days of the iPhone, it felt like a little bit of wizardry in my hand to be able to, in a few seconds, extract the name of the band whose song was playing on the car radio or bar stereo from the tip of my tongue. Truth is, it still does. And that's precisely why most of the company's users--100 million per month, per statistics it just released--still use the Shazam app.

Japan Airlines is carrying out a Bluetooth beacon pilot project at 13 airports, using a solution provided by Dai Nippon Printing Co. (DNP). A similar pilot is being conducted by Aeon Mall at some of its locations in Japan. At each site, DNP has installed Spansion's MB39C811 Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) beacons, which come with energy-harvesting power-management integrated circuits (PMICs), as well as a solar panel to capture power from the light and use that power to transmit data. DNP's beacon solution helps identify location data, which Japan Airlines and Aeon Mall can then employ in their own apps installed on customers' smartphones, in order to provide those individuals with relevant …

Mobile payments and banking firm Monitise has put itself up for sale. The company, which is based in the United Kingdom, is citing changes in its business model for its third revenue warning that it has received in a year. Shares in Monitise have fallen by 20% as doubts begin to emerge concerning the company’s ability to find a buyer. The company has been experiencing some turbulence in the UK market recently, despite the growing adoption of mobile payments. Monitise made a significant change in its business model recently, moving from a licensing model to a subscription-based structure. The company provides …

Dixons Carphone, a European electronics retailer, has launched TouchCommerce’s TouchChat engagement solution to ensure online support for customers during their journey to make a purchase. The chat solution will be available on the Currys and PC World Web sites Currys.co.uk and PCWorld.co.uk. By tapping this online capability, which is accessible across mobile, tablet and desktop platforms, Dixons Carphone can also gain real-time customer analytics to present relevant content to the right audience at the right time.

Venmo, the popular peer-to-peer payment app, processed more than $900 Mn in transactions during the fourth quarter of 2014. However, Venmo showed a slower quarter-over-quarter growth. While the company witnessed a growth rate of 50% between Q2 and Q3 of 2014, the growth rate between Q3 and Q4 was 29% only. As reported by BI Intelligence, there are a few possible explanations for this stagnation towards the end of the year. One could be decreased ad spend while another could be the holiday season which led to a lower number of peer-to-peer transactions. Venmo has gained significant popularity over …