The total global mobile ticketing user base will exceed 750 million consumers by 2015, according to a new whitepaper from Juniper Research. Data from “Ticketing Goes Mobile” indicates this will equal 12.7% of all global mobile users, close to triple the predicted mobile ticketing penetration rate of 4.5% for 2011.
Juniper defines a mobile ticketing user as a consumer who stores a ticket for travel, a venue or event on their mobile device for later redemption.
Far East/China Will Have Most Users
Juniper predicts that in 2015, the Far East and China will be the largest global mobile ticketing market by a substantial margin, representing about one-third of mobile ticketing users. The Africa/Middle East market will follow, with North America, Western Europe and the rest of Asia Pacific all roughly tying for market size behind it.
The Indian Subcontinent, Eastern/Central Europe, and Latin America markets will represent a smaller portion of the global mobile ticketing market.
Penetration Rate to Double in 2 Years
Juniper says the key years for global mobile ticketing growth will be 2011-2013, when the availability of commercial mobile ticketing services and the growth of near-field communication (NFC) technology in countries other than Japan should double penetration rate to roughly 9%.
Ticket Issuers, Vendors Help Grow Market
Juniper Research identifies a number of entities it says are helping grow the mobile ticketing market. On the ticket issuer side, these include Live Nation/Ticketmaster, Tickets.com, Major League Baseball, and various airline/railway/bus companies. On the vendor side, Juniper does not cite specific companies but says IT developers in fields such as NFC, mobile networking, SMS text messaging, barcodes, and mobile POS devices are helping to spur growth of mobile ticketing.
Mobile Ticketing to More than Double
In addition to forecasting a doubling of mobile ticketing penetration by 2013, Juniper Research has previously forecast a more than doubling of mobile ticketing transaction value between 2010 and 2012. The Juniper Research white paper “Mobile Commerce Strategies” indicates that rapidly increasing usage of mobile devices for tickets for all kinds of travel and entertainment, as well as sporting events, will be one of the main factors driving the growth of mobile commerce. Mobile ticketing transactions are forecast to exceed $100 billion (based on gross transaction value) as soon as 2012. This is more than double the market in 2010.
Nearly 15 billion tickets will be delivered to mobile devices worldwide by 2014, compared to just more than two billion last year. Juniper says the transport sector is leading the way, with SMS, bar code and app-based services offered by rail and metro providers and airlines.
