New report paints a promising future for mobile commerce worldwide

WorldPay, a payment service provider based in the United Kingdom, has released a new report, called “Your Global Guide to Alternative Payments,” concerning the potential future of the mobile commerce space. Mobile payments have been growing in prominence throughout the world and as more consumers gain access to smartphones and tablets, they are beginning to show more interest in shopping with these devices. Wearable devices, such as smartwatches, are also coming into play, providing further accessibility to the mobile commerce space.

Mobile commerce market expected to reach $117 billion by the end of 2017

The report from WorldPay predicts that mobile payments will reach $117 billion worldwide by 2017, a major increase from the $18 billion recorded in 2012. Mobile commerce is expected to make up at least 3% of the global e-commerce market by 2017. The report highlights the growth in popularity of mobile wallets, which consumers are using to manage their finances on a mobile device. These platforms are capable of storing and accessing financial information. This information is used to complete a mobile transaction.

Smartphones continue to be the most prominent mobile commerce platform in the world

Smartphones are currently considered to be the most popular mobile commerce device, but tablet devices are beginning to gain more support from consumers. Many people have reported a more favorable experience when shopping from a tablet device over a smartphone. Despite this, smartphones are expected to continue leading the way in mobile commerce, especially in the Asian market where smartphone penetration is accelerating at a rapid pace.

Security remains one of the most serious issues facing the mobile commerce sector

The report shows that consumers are becoming more comfortable with mobile payments despite high profile security issues that have been somewhat common in the past. Mobile commerce platforms are becoming more capable of protecting consumer financial information, thereby making them more likely to participate in online shopping from a mobile device. While security for many platforms has been improving, many people have still expressed their concerns regarding the safety of mobile commerce in general.

The company behind the wildly popular and addictive mobile apps is seeking to raise $500 million.

The mobile app development company behind Candy Crush Saga, King, has made technology news headlines as it is to raise at least $500 million in an initial public offering.

The British computer games company has said that its most popular mobile app generated 78 percent of its Q4 revenues.

This, and a number of other statistics were also released in this latest mobile technology news, including that approximately 93 million people play the Candy Crush Saga app every day. This, according to the documents that King filed with the United States SEC. That application is, by far, its biggest hit and its popularity continues to grow.

The technology news continued as the company revealed that the game brought in $1.9 billion last year.

According to King, this is a massive increase over the tremendous earnings it was already generating through the Candy Crush Saga in 2011, which were “only” $64 million. All of these figures were included in the pre-IPO documents submitted by the company.

At the same time, though, King still found itself in a pre-tax loss of $698,000 in 2011. The company managed to turn that around quite dramatically in 2013, showing a $714.3 million profit. The company is registered in Ireland and has its headquarters in London, but has filed to float under the ticker “King”, on the Nasdaq stock exchange in the United States.

Now the company must face its next challenge, which will be to win over investors and build their confidence after the mobile gaming sector has performed quite poorly and unexpectedly in the past. Many will surely be worried that they will only find themselves burned once again by the hype of this technology news and the opportunity that King appears to be presenting.

The first case that typically comes to mind was that of Farmville on Facebook. It was created by the mobile app development company, Zynga, a major competitor of King. It drew a tremendous user base and created a great deal of excitement before its 2011 floatation, after which it rapidly plummeted to about one third of its IPO price, as the company scrambled to try to come up with another equivalent success.