Visa and Orange have now announced that they will be working together in this new service.

Orange, a French operator group, has now entered into a strategic partnership with Visa, the credit card giant, in order to help to speed up the awareness of using NFC technology for contactless mobile payments in the country.

The operator has also launched a smartphone based prepayment solution in France called Orange Cash.

These two companies are collaborating to make sure that rate by which consumers are discovering mobile payments based on NFC technology will be considerably accelerated in France. Both of these companies have stated that their goal is to boost awareness of the benefits of using near field communications tech for contactless transactions. They feel that France is a solid marketplace for this type of effort as it is already seeing an increasing adoption among consumers.

The companies stated that in the last half year, contactless mobile payments terminals in France have increased by 50 percent.

In the last six months, the number of terminals used by French merchants that include contactless mobile payments has risen by over 50 percent. This means that today there are more than 200,000 active terminals in the country. Moreover, there has been a tremendous NFC technology enabled smartphone deployment in the country, which ensures that a growing number of consumers actually have the necessary tech to complete contactless transactions.

The prepayments service called Orange Cash will become available to subscribers to Orange that have NFC technology compatible smartphones in Caen and in Strasbourg in the first part of 2014. This will be the first stage in a nationwide launch of the mobile payments program within the second quarter of next year.

Customers using this program will need to download the app for Orange Cash from the app store that is applicable to their device, and then simply top up the account with funds by choosing their bank card. In order to actually make a mobile payment through this service, they will simply need to tap their NFC technology enabled device against a compatible payment terminal at the checkout of the retailer’s location.

Flipboard begins approaching the mobile commerce field

Flipboard, a social magazine application for iOS and Android devices, has been updated recently in the hopes of extending itself further into the mobile commerce space. Flipboard has taken an interest in mobile commerce due to the revenue potential that it represents. In March of this year, the application was updated with a feature that allowed users to create their own magazines. Now, the application has introduced a catalogs category to this service, which may help it break into the mobile commerce field.

New tools designed to generate commerce activity

The newly added catalog tool is designed to expand the application’s curation capabilities. Catalogs are meant to act as a way to display and seek out purchasable items. These products can be purchased through a mobile device and users can share the catalogs they find through the application. Flipboard has launched 11 product-oriented magazines in order to generate initial mobile commerce activity. It has also begun collaborating with celebrities in order to generate more awareness concerning it efforts.

Competition is fierce in the mobile commerce arena

Mobile commerce has become quite popular among consumers, but it does represent a very competitive field. Breaking into mobile commerce is no small feat due to the number of start-ups and large companies that are all trying to establish a strong foothold in this sector. Like other entities that are new to the mobile commerce field, Flipboard is taking a somewhat cautious approach rather than jumping headlong into the competition and risking failure.

Expansion of marketing tools may be a boon for brands

Flipboard will continue to generate revenue through its advertising model rather than imposing stringent fees on its catalog tool and mobile commerce initiative. Flipboard plans to expand its advertising in the near future and introduce better tools to marketers that will allow them to develop more targeted campaigns. Numerous brands have been using Flipboard as an advertising platform for some time and the expansion of the application’s marketing features may help these brands reach higher levels of mobile engagement.