Mobile ticketing popular but still faces hurdles

Around 400 million mobile subscribers worldwide are forecast to use their mobile phones for ticketing by 2013, according to figures released Tuesday.

Industry analyst Juniper Research predicts that the leading sectors for mobile ticketing will be transport, followed by entertainment and then sporting events.

Already the technology is gaining popularity in the Far East and China region, driven by adoption in Japan, particularly amongst rail travellers. Airlines are also beginning to offer mobile ticket purchasing and a number of trials are being carried out by cinema chains in the Indian market, which accounts for 37 per cent of all movie tickets sold worldwide.

However, the researcher warned that trials and pilots are not being implemented into full mobile ticketing services as quickly as expected for several reasons including bar code reading issues, lack of reader infrastructure and availability of NFC (Near Field Communications) handsets.

“Mobile ticketing offers exciting new opportunities for ticket issuers to achieve increased sales including targeted last-minute sales campaigns. For example, tickets for the sporting event or movie happening ‘tomorrow’ or ‘tonight’ could be marketed directly to known fans.” However, Wilcox warned that whilst NFC mobile user trial results such as O2 in London and BART in San Francisco have been encouraging, market traction will be determined by the availability of NFC phones and the speed of installation of NFC readers.

Juniper reckons that NFC will reach a tipping point over the 2011 to 2013 period.