Half a billion people worldwide will use their mobile devices as travel tickets on metros, subways and buses by 2015, according to a new report by Juniper Research.
This is over five times the number generated last year but the report suggests usage will spread widely from the current concentration in Japan and several European countries.
As metro authorities begin the transition to open contactless payment systems, NFC ticket usage is forecast to grow significantly from 2013.
The report’s author, Howard Wilcox said:
“Whether by expansion of SMS and bar code delivery or by NFC, at Juniper we see convenience and choice for users as key advantages of mobile ticketing. It will be 2013 before large numbers of NFC enabled devices are in peoples’ pockets and our new report forecasts the impact on transaction volumes.”
The report states that Western Europe, the Far East & China will be the leading transport mobile ticketing regions by volume in 2015.
