Each week the MEF team curates mobile stories from around the world. Essential news, the latest market insight & data nuggets, the Global News Round-up offers an instant international mobile content and commerce snapshot.
Global News Stories
EBay pins hope on local services to drive mobile growth
Mobile Commerce Daily
Mobile-enabled local services played a bigger role in the mobile strategies of eBay and PayPal during the third quarter and will be a big focus for the company heading into the holidays and next year.
Telefonica Takes A Strategic Stake In Rhapsody, Will Bring Napster Into Latin America, Deeper Into Europe
Tech Crunch
In the allegro-paced race between music streaming providers to see who will be the first to achieve profitable scale, today Rhapsody got a significant leg up, courtesy of Telefonica. The Spanish-based mobile carrier, which has some 316 million customers globally, is making a strategic investment in Rhapsody, which will include a deal to bundle and resell Rhapsody’s Napster music service and catalog of 20 million tracks to Telefonica mobile and broadband subscribers.
IAB Study Reveals the Extent of the Connected Lifestyle
Mobile Marketing Magazine
One in six smartphone owners use their phone at some stage when buying goods, while people use some form of internet-connected device (not including TVs or games consoles) 34 times a day, according to a new report from the Internet Advertising Bureau UK (IAB).
US consumers dubious about mobile wallets, research shows
Consult Hyperion
Over 64% of US consumers say that they would never use a mobile wallet, according to recent research carried out by secure electronic transactions consultancy Consult Hyperion in preparation for its fall series of Tomorrow’s Transactions Unconferences in the USA.
UK is the European leader in m-Commerce
Mobile Entertainment
Amongst the 11 key territories examined, the UK has emerged as a European leader in all things m-Commerce, according to data from VoucherCodes.co.uk and Ipsos Public Affairs. Mobile shopping amongst British consumers is no longer limited to browsing or comparing prices – 22 per cent have made payments with their phones and 10 per cent now use it as their primary method,.
Mobile Is The Future Of Payments — Here’s Why There’s Virtually No Ceiling To The Opportunity
Business Insider
It’s no longer a question of when and how mobile will emerge as a payments platform. The habit of paying for things on smartphones and tablets is already ingrained in modern consumer society, particularly among young demographics.
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Amazon Has Reportedly Teamed Up With HTC For Its New Line Of Smartphones
Tech Crunch
HTC isn’t exactly doing great these days, but that may change if a new (and secretive) partnership pans out. A new report from the Financial Times alleges that HTC has partnered with none other than Amazon on a handful of devices that could make their way to the e-tailer’s virtual shelves as soon as next year.
Facebook buys Israeli startup Onavo for more than $150 million
haaretz.com
Facebook, the world’s largest social network, has signed an agreement to acquire the Israeli startup Onavo for more than $150 million. Onavo, the developer of an award-winning mobile utility app and the company behind Onavo Insights, made the announcement Monday morning to its employees and published a notice on its blog.
Mobile content & commerce awards Meffys announces 2013 finalists
MEF, the global community for mobile content and commerce has announced the finalists for the 10th annual Meffys awards. With entries across 13 categories from across all five continents, the award ceremony will for the first time take place in North America as part of the inaugural conference, MEF Global Forum 2013, on November 14 and 15, in Silicon Valley.
Global News Round-up – These articles are not written by MEF and do not represent any views of individuals, members or the organisation.