Music discovery firm Shazam has taken in a new round of financing, scooping up $30 million of investment — in a deal which values the business at more than $1 billion, it said yesterday. The investors in the round are not being disclosed but at least some are new to the business, and Chairman Andrew Fischer told Bloomberg that “a couple of billionaires” participated in its latest financing. Shazam‘s prior investors include DN Capital and KPCB. The London-based company has branched out from music discovery in recent years, and now self describes as a media engagement business — expanding into TV show and ad tagging as it seeks to grow beyond …

Migros, a Switzerland-based supermarket chain, is rolling out a mobile payments service. It will not only work across Migros’ own locations but with other stores and with other bank accounts as well. The new mobile payment service will also work with accounts at the retailer-owned Migros Bank, as reported by Schweiz am Sonntag. The retailer has the capability for such an initiative as it runs its own bank. The bank itself has already been given the project of developing a mobile payment system.

Twitter is still one of the most popular social media platforms in the world, but the competition is fierce. For this reason Twitter is actively searching for ways to stay relevant, and ways to further monetize their microblogging platform. In a recent announcement chronicled by MCD, a Twitter executive shared that part of their 2015 strategy will be to begin processing mobile payments. However, Twitter’s goal is not to create a mobile payment platform but to allow a new advertising option for movie theaters and concert venues to sell tickets.

Church’s Chicken is moving deeper into mobile rewards by becoming the latest quick-service restaurant chain to let customers earn savings, offers and coupons through a mobile application. The app also allows customers to earn free chicken after seven store visits and provide feedback to management. It is the latest sign that acceptance of the newer mobile options, like payment and loyalty programs, is growing rapidly in restaurants.

Online shopping has continued to grow steadily over the last decade, but the emerging mobile commerce marketplace is just beginning to take off at supersonic speeds. With mobile payment options, such as Google Wallet, Apple Pay, and PayPal exploding in popularity, a growing number of consumers are comfortably and confidently turning to mobile payment processing for day-to-day purchases. In a recent report (“Global M-Commerce Market 2015-2019”) the growth of mobile commerce over the next few years was exhaustively explored.

Three-quarters of users of fitness monitoring devices and Web sites would part with private information in exchange for discounts and coupons, a behavioral trend spurred by the range of activities they do on smartphones and devices, according to a new study. Rocket Fuel’s investigation of Americans’ willingness to share behavioral data with advertisers while using fitness monitoring wearables, mobile applications and Web sites, also found that when consumers interacted with a CPG digital ad, including mobile, they were five times more likely to purchase products. 

Almost 20 million people have an internet connection in Malaysia and the government plans to bring the figure to 22.5 million by the end of 2015. This means internet penetration in Malaysia will be 75 per cent. One of the main reasons is to fulfill Malaysia’s goal of having a strong e-commerce and digital economy by 2020 under the Digital Malaysia programme. In 2011, total e-commerce transactions in Malaysia came up to almost RM900 million (US$253 million in present day conversion). In 2015, it may be worth as much as RM5 billion (US$1.4 billion), according to Forbes. E-commerce sales worldwide are …

 Ford Motor Co. is testing a new way that shoppers browsing on a dealership lot can learn about the vehicles they're looking at. Ford is demonstrating the technology, which it developed in conjunction with Cisco Systems, on an F-150 at the Detroit auto show. The truck has 11 asymmetrically shaped beacons on it, with each programmed to highlight one of its features. Bluetooth-capable "beacons" placed on the vehicles can automatically transmit information to be displayed on a shopper's smartphone. The consumer only needs to connect to the dealership's wireless network, and the information can be shown either through the phone's …

If you know what you’re looking for, making your way around the Golden State Warriors’ home arena is a little like playing a high-tech game of Where’s Waldo. I’m navigating the concourses with Kevin Cote, the senior director for digital for the Warriors, and we are on a hunt for beacons, these little Bluetooth gadgets that come in all shapes and sizes that can send information to your phone if you come within a certain distance. Once you know these beacons are there, you can’t stop looking for them. They’re in the rafters, affixed to walls and pipes, …

2015 could be the year in which mobile payments really explode into the mainstream, according to a new report. Research by Deloitte, published in its annual Technology, Media & Telecommunications (TMT) Predictions report, predicts that in-store mobile payments will increase by more than 1,000 percent worldwide this year. This year, about 10 percent of the base of smartphones worldwide will be used to make an in-store payment at least once a month, compared to less than half a percent (led by early adopters in Japan) of about 450 million smartphones in mid-2014.