Hampshire, UK. New research has forecast that over 400 million mobile subscribers worldwide will use their mobile phones for ticketing by 2013. However, the study concluded 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.

The Juniper Research report found that the leading sector will be transport, followed by entertainment and then sporting events. The Far East and China region is leading the market, driven by adoption in Japan particularly amongst rail travellers. In addition airlines are beginning to offer mobile ticket purchasing. Outside the transport segment, the report identified a number of ground-breaking trials and services, such as by cinema chains in India which buys 37% of all movie tickets sold worldwide. In addition a number of football and baseball teams are beginning to offer mobile options for ticket purchase and delivery; however, many venues still require a printed ticket to gain entry.

Juniper report author Howard Wilcox pointed out:

“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.”

Location based social networks (LBSN) such as BrightKite can take advantage of this, since last-minute sales campaigns can be targeted to people close by the event via the LBSN.

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 Research determines the current status and prospects of mobile ticketing with analysis and interviews with some of the leading organisations in the growing mobile ticketing market.

Key findings from the report include:
•    Total gross mobile ticketing transaction value will reach $92 billion by 2013.
•    The Far East & China region, together with Western Europe and North America will represent in excess of 80% of this global gross transaction value by 2013.
•    Mobile ticketing must “make life easier” for users. In this respect, NFC, with its convenience, is a crucial development.
•    NFC will reach its tipping point over the 2011 to 2013 period.

The report however, does not mention the prospects of mobile ticketing in  the Arab world, as the UAE based  MOSecure has launched has launched mobile marketing  and ticketing solutions: MAP which allows advertisers to push bar-coded vouchers and tickets to mobile consumers via SMS, and NFC solution: SmartCode™ that can be a logo of a company in full color with encoded data which can be decoded by pointing a camera phone to it. (I will do a follow up with Mosecure to see how they are doing.)

White papers and further details of the study ‘Mobile Ticketing: Transport, Sport, Entertainment & Events 2008-2013′ can be freely downloaded from here.

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