Mobile ticketing services in the Northern Europe: Critical business model issues

Started as SMS ticketing, today, mobile ticketing services become a platform for combined mobility solutions that integrate mobile ticketing, bike renting, car sharing, and parking payment services. Mobile ticketing services provide a number of benefits for public transport companies and passengers, however, in some Northern European countries, the share of mobile ticket sales does not exceed 10 percent. In this paper, we analyse business models of three types of mobile ticketing services (SMS, in-app, and “Be-In Be-Out” (BIBO)) in order to identify factors that negatively affect wider penetration of mobile ticketing. In order to do so, we use STOF (Service, Technology, Organisation, and Finance) model. The research reveals that there are a number of challenges related to service, technology, and finance domains of mobile ticketing. Due to this, with the help of price policy, many public transport companies push choices of their customers towards use of plastic travel card.