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Contactless ticketing market growing despite developments in mobile tech

Posted: 8 May 2018 | | No comments yet

Despite competition from mobile ticketing, the market of contactless tickets is still growing and is expected to reach 550 million shipments by 2023…

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The contactless ticketing market will continue to grow despite the development of mobile ticketing, according a new report by ABI Research.

Shipments are expected to rise from 447 million in 2018 to 550 million in 2023.

There is currently no technology that covers all transport modes and ticket types which highlights the need for transportation authorities to increase ticketing consumption choice via technology for ticketing ecosystems.

The smartcard market paved the way for ticketing innovations, using well-established contactless ticketing infrastructure to shift toward account-based, open systems. This brings new ticketing forms, including mobile, to the market.

For the leading OEMs, the mobile ticketing opportunity has not gone unnoticed. Apple has announced support for the FeliCa ticketing protocol and Google has announced a partnership with NXP, integrating NXP’s MIFARE 2GO cloud service with Google Pay.

However, mobile needs to take the ticketing market to the next level, combining with other services to shift from ticketing to personalised services. As ticketing choice increases, the ability to simply digitalise a ticket will not be compelling enough for a user to choose mobile ticketing over another familiar format.

“Feature rich mobile devices are credential types from which service providers can gather valuable data and analytics on customers, bringing them closer to end users,” said Phil Sealy, Principal Analyst at ABI Research. “This will help optimise and provide targeted added value via the launch of new innovative services as well as a platform from which new allegiances and partnerships can be forged. This will build future strategies and ultimately open up new revenue opportunities and business models through campaigns, marketing and loyalty.

“Visionaries understand that the true value of mobile ticketing lies beyond the ability to simply and securely digitally visualise a physical ticket. Development strategies need to focus on the enablement of a compelling offer which combines the convenience of mobile with added value, moulding services around the new business model opportunity and ultimately justifying it with a clear business case.”

These findings are from ABI Research’s ​Mobile Ticketing: The Diversification Opportunity report. This report is part of the company’s ​Digital Security research service, which includes research, data, and Executive Foresights.

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