Mobile devices have changed the way we communicate, shop and travel. The study carried out by Telecoming, based on Juniper Research Data, reveals that almost 4.5M Spaniards will use their mobile phones to buy transport tickets in 2020. The number of mobile purchases for metro and bus tickets will exceed 148M.

The mobile phone is a real payment option

Madrid, Barcelona, Malaga, Valencia, Bilbao and Zaragoza are some of the Spanish cities where the mobile phone is already a real payment option. The recent implementation of the European Payment Services Directive (PSD2) sets a helpful framework for transports, where users are looking for simple, fast and secure payments solutions.

Smartphone purchases keep growing

According to our analysis, train and bus ticket purchases made with the mobile phone reached 270€ in 2019 and will grow to 317€ in 2020. In the coming years, y-o-y growth will be higher than 18%, and turnover is expected to be close to €615M by 2024.

Nearly 4M users already use their mobile phone to travel on the metro and bus in Spain. The number of users who will buy tickets through heir phone will exceed 7 million passengers in five years; this represents an annual growth of 17%.

Daily use of mobile payment

In 2019, more than 148M metro and bus tickets were purchased through a mobile device in Spain. According to our analysis, that figure will grow to 180M in 2020 and will be around 400M in 2024. Besides, each user acquires an average of 45 metro and bus tickets per year with their mobile phone.

Today, most of the purchases for travelling by metro and bus are made through mobile apps or other types of digital mechanisms (60%). These figures mean that 2.5M passengers use Apps and other digital ticketing mechanisms to acquire their tickets. NFC technology will evolve over the next few years and will become the preferred option for almost 6M users by 2024.

Roberto Monge, our Chief Operations Officer, explains “the implementation of PSD2 and its regulatory application is an extraordinary opportunity for Direct Carrier Billing. We can answer consumers’ expectations who need simple, fast and secure solutions to manage their daily payments. We expect rapid consolidation and implementation in the transport industry of the main Spanish cities. We are happy about taking part in the development of this promising sector.