This is certainly positive news for many of the third-party payment companies in China that offer mobile ticketing services (and for the online travel agencies Ctrip.com and eLong.net as well). Based on research for our series of third-party payment company profile reports, we have found that several of these companies in China offer mobile ticketing (and payments) services via SMS, WAP, or IVR platforms. Currently, ticket delivery services include both e-ticketing delivered via SMS or MMS and paper ticketing for pick up at the airport, but a switch over to e-ticketing for all airlines would offer greater convenience for electronic ticketing services.
However, not all is rosy for mobile ticketing companies in China. Of the many third-party payment companies we have extensively covered, four companies offer mobile ticketing services - UMPay, Smartpay, Yeepay, and China M-World. Of these four companies, none are profitable. Each of these companies are struggling to attract a critical mass of users and are staying afloat from investor money.
As originally stated last August in our report, Mobile Top-up & M-payment Adoption in China, we believe that at this stage of mobile payment industry development, mobile payment companies should focus on mobile top-up services, not mobile ticketing, to increase user adoption and develop a user habit for making payments through a mobile phone. Mobile top-ups service is relatively easy to use, has a large potential user base (over 300 million prepaid mobile users), and is suitable for on-the-go payments. The problem is, however, that low per-transaction revenues have kept most mobile payment companies from making mobile top-up a focal point in their m-payment offerings.
Back to the original story, I suggest you don’t hold your breath for mobile ticketing services to be widely available (and used) in China anytime soon - from my experience, telephone booking and cash-on-delivery still seems the most convenient and efficient method to order and to pay for plane tickets.
To inquire about a complimentary copy of Mobile Top-up & M-payment Adoption in China, please contact Dave Carini at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
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