Digital payments company Paytm, founded by Vijay Shekhar Sharma, is handholding small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to come online. It hopes to expand the network of merchants on its e-commerce marketplace from the existing 60,000 to 100,000 by the end of this year and, eventually, to a million. Through its GoBig platform, the Alibaba-backed firm is not only providing tech tools such as content writers, web marketers and photographers but has also created a directory of service providers that extend loans to SMEs along with finance and accounting firms.

China's e-commerce raked up a whopping $ 2.68 trillion in 2014, registering a 59.4 per cent jump from the year before despite a slowdown in the world's second-largest economy. China's e-commerce trade soared in 2014 thanks to improved Internet infrastructure and an increase in cellphone users, state-run Xinhua news agency reported. 

The most recent indication that mobile banking is becoming increasingly popular and that the traditional form of banking by lining up and speaking to a human teller is on its way out, has now been released in the form of some interesting data from Halifax Bank of Scotland. In fact, that preference is strong enough that customers would still rather use mobile banking or an automated machine, even when they’re in a bank branch. The vast majority of interactions that customers have with their banks are over devices such as smartphones, tablets, laptops, and automated teller machines.

Everlane, the fashion shopping site focused on selling high-quality apparel at lower prices than traditional designer retail, has today made the move to mobile. The company has now launched its first native smartphone application with the launch of Everlane on iOS, which allows shoppers to browse and buy its luxury items right from their phone. However, the app has a couple of interesting features, too, aimed at helping it find traction amid a variety of mobile shopping apps, as well as the clutter of all the other apps users today have installed on their phones.

The Cheesecake Factory is piloting a new application that enables diners to split and pay the bill via their smartphones, as well as receive a complimentary slice of cheesecake upon sign-up, pointing to restaurants’ growing interest in mobile payments. The CakePay mobile app, which is only available in select markets, prevents customers from having to wait for their server to check out and leave a tip.

Stripe, a California-based online payments company, has raised new investments which have raised the company valuation to $5 billion from $3.57 billion in December 2014. The funding was led by financial giant Visa and experts believe this is a huge endorsement for Stripe. The company had previously raised a total funding of $190 million from high-profile investors including PayPal co-founders, Sequoia Capital, Box CEO Aaron Levie, Khosla Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz and others. Stripe provides varied products to facilitate online and mobile payments. The company’s unified set of APIs and tools enables businesses to accept and manage online payments instantly. 

Smartphones don't just connect to nearby cell phone towers. Proximity beacon technology has been around a few years in the form of Apple's iBeacon, which allows an iPhone or iPad to connect to objects – called beacons – using Bluetooth. Retailers, museums, sports stadiums and anywhere else with large numbers of smartphone users can now use beacons to provide hyper-local information down to the exact aisle, exhibit, or seat. Airports, zoos, concert halls and shopping malls are now being fitted with Bluetooth-powered beacons that let smartphones pick up adverts, notifications, and even navigate indoors.