Chili’s Grill & Bar claims to be the first national casual dining chain to offer a free item for a check-in via a mobile social network to drive foot traffic into its restaurants.

Sanford’s Sharpie and Cadbury’s Dentene have partnered with location-based mobile social network Brightkite to enhance their respective loyalty initiatives.

Entertainment categories such as mobile gaming, music and social networking are dominating the applications space, according to skyrockit’s newest executive.

Burger King, Gap, Starbucks and Universal Music Group are driving sales via the new Loopt Star mobile social networking rewards game.

Mobile social network MocoSpace found that iPhone/Android users are 72 percent more likely to buy virtual currency than feature-phone users.

Mobile flirting service and social network Flirtomatic sold 28,000-plus virtual gifts in the five days between Boxing Day and New Year’s Eve.