What’s happening among the MEF membership? Here’s your weekly round up of all the latest announcements from the members…
Orange`s mobile wallet now supports Apple Pay in France
Orange has teamed up with payment specialist Wirecard to let customers use Apple Pay inside the Orange Cash wallet app.
The app was developed by Wirecard and offers real-time information about balance and transactions linked to a prepaid account with a digital Visa card.
Now, customers with an iPhone 6 and later can make contactless purchases and benefit from couponing and loyalty deals while using mobile payments.
Opera has 100m African users
Data and privacy preserving browser Opera has reached the 100m user milestone in Africa after 21 years.
Opera Software has always worked closely with operators in Africa, where there has been a relative lack of fixed broadband, and where users are particularly cost conscious.
Indeed after the launch of the data-saving Opera Mini mobile browser in 2006, Opera formed partnerships with multiple MNOs across the continent.
Now, in its State of the Mobile Web Africa report, Opera confirmed the 100 million user landmark has been reached.
French department store offers Alipay transactions
The Printemps group has become the first department store in France to cater for Chinese tourists who choose Alipay.
Its Printemps Haussmann site will offer the service, which lets users pay with a QR code at the point of sale.
Alipay has more than 450 million Chinese users, and is being distributed across Europe by Germany’s Wirecard. The system will be rolled out at all 18 Printemps stores by the end of the year.
Rita Liu, Director of Alipay Europe, said: “For our customers, this roll out is synonymous with greater added value, as they can now pay with the same method they use at home.”
RealNetworks takes its RealTimes video to Brazil
Vivo will offer the popular video tool, RealTimes, to its 73.5 million customers following a deal with RealNetworks.
RealTimes (re-branded Vivo Sync Momentos in Brazil) is an app that uses clever tech to edit pics, videos and music together based on events or locations in a person’s camera roll. It solves the problem of too many pictures and videos and lack of time to organise them.
The Vivo deal marks the fourth mobile operator integration for RealTimes in a year. Since its launch in 2015, users have created over 7 million RealTimes Stories.
RealNetworks and Vivo also recently announced Vivo Sounds, a digital service that allows Vivo users to set a ringback tone with music or status message.
Vodafone India confirms major 4G push
2,400 Indian towns and eight additional circles will get Vodafone SuperNetTM 4G services by March 2017.
The operator says the extension is part of a major push following the modernisation of its network. The new circles are Assam & North East, Maharashtra & Goa, Odisha, Punjab, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu (including Chennai) and UP (W) will shortly join Mumbai, Delhi & NCR, Kolkata, Karnataka, Kerala, Haryana, Gujarat, UP (East) and West Bengal.
“Our investments in creating a modern and scalable network and partnering with leading global technology infrastructure service providers, is enabling aggressive network rollout in terms of pace and scale of deployment,” says Sunil Sood, MD and CEO, Vodafone India.
migme adds new Gamespark games
Asia-based digital media company migme is to rebrand and publish four new Gamespark games on its social entertainment platform.
The addition of these new games are expected to drive both engagement and monetisation across migme’s user base. The social nature of the games provides partnering opportunities with the company’s growing artist and key influencer community.
They comprise: the RPG, Redcliff Arena 2; strategic action card-battle game Boat Royale an as social casino games P2P Poker and Slots.
“We are excited to be bringing these new mobile and social casino games to our key markets across the Southeast Asian region. We look forward to tapping into the growth potential of these gaming categories into 2017,” said Steven Goh, migme CEO.
