DIMOCO shows how the “digital generation” travels
Mobile payment & messaging provider publishes the 5 top trends & Mr. D. summer edition
Brunn am Gebirge (Austria), 15. July 2014 – DIMOCO http://www.dimoco.eu shows how the digital generation travels. Mister Digital (Mr. D. for short) communicates, researches and organizes his holiday plus the accompanying info & entertainment program on his smartphone, tablet, and laptop. The mobile operator payment and mobile messaging provider publishes its second Mr. D. special, highlighting the current trends pursued by the digital generation. While texting in the application-to-person sector can be used for information purposes when travelling, mobile operator payment makes quick and easy payment of digital content such as tickets, possible. The travel industry has long discovered the benefits of the mobile channel, thereby significantly increasing usage rates by smartphone and tablet users.
“This edition of a Mr. D. Special clearly reveals that the various digital channels – in particular the smartphone – are used before, during and after a holiday,” says Gerald Tauchner, DIMOCO CEO, confirming the trendsetting digital generation’s travel behavior. “SMS and mobile operator payment are therefore an ideal complement once again, helping companies reach a huge target group directly.”
DIMOCO publishes Mr. D. summer edition: How the digital generation travels
For the second time now the mobile operator payment and messaging provider publishes its Mister Digital special. Under the banner “how the digital generation travels” DIMOCO presents the mobile trends in the tourism and travel sector, revealing through Mr. D. (Mister Digital) how digital channels can be exploited for holiday travel.
“Our goal is to highlight current developments and how SMS in the A2P and P2A as well as mobile operator payment can be implemented to maximize their potential”, says Tauchner. While SMS in the application-to-person sector can be used for information purposes while travelling, mobile operator payment makes quick and easy payment of digital content such as tickets, possible.
How the digital generation travels – the Top 5 Trends at a glance:
· Trend Number 1: Multi-screens: a number of different digital channels are used before, during and after holiday travel.
o Travel planning has shifted from something you do ahead of time to something that’s possible anytime. The leading travel website TripAdvisor recently reached the milestone of 100 million downloads for its free iOS and Android app. The number of downloads more than doubled in the past year.
o TripAdvisor, researched people’s travel habits in 32 markets and came to the conclusion that 91% use their smartphones when travelling. 37% use them to obtain information about holiday activities and a further 27% to look for a hotel. (TripAdvisor, April 2014)
o Increased mobile and tablet usage was also reported from TripAdvisor Germany. Smartphones and tablets are often used to check flights (46% in 2014 vs. 22% in 2013) and to check flight prices (40% in 2014 vs. 20% in 2013). A third of the travelers use mobile end devices as a boarding pass (30% in 2014 vs. 13% in 2013). Every fourth traveler books flights via mobile channel (25% in 2014 vs. 13% in 2013). (TripAdvisor, March 2014)
o The travel search engine KAYAK reports more than a billion searches per year. The mobile application was installed a total of 35 million times. Smartphones and tablets account for 30 percent of total traffic at KAYAK. According to the company, the mobile channel accelerates growth in searches, leading KAYAK’s conversion rate to grow 70 percent in a single year. KAYAK operates in 31 countries and in 17 languages, and is known in Austria as „checkfelix.“ (checkfelix, May 2014)
o With over 1,000,000 downloads, the Air Berlin app is one of the most successful in the travel industry. Check-in via smartphone is currently used by up to 8 percent for all flights. (Air Berlin, Mai 2014)
o easy.GO has 100,000 active users every month. The German mobile app allows passengers travelling on public transportation in central Germany and in the Rhein-Sieg region to order their tickets and pay via mobile operator payment.
· Trend Number 2: A variety of mobile channels such as SMS are used for travel.
o The tourism sector benefits in many ways from SMS: double authentication, booking confirmations, marketing news, customer enquiries, reminders and information messages and much more.
o The top 5 European Application-to-Person and Person-to-Application SMS markets are France, England, Italy, Germany and Turkey. While in France 32.9 billion SMS were sent in the A2P and P2A market, in Turkey 10.5 billion SMS were sent in 2012. The entire A2P- and P2A market in Europe will increase from 184 billion text messages in 2012 to 283 billion text messages in 2017. (Portio Research)
· Trend Number 3: Companies in the tourism industry have long since discovered the benefits of the mobile communication channel.
o 76% percent of all hotels are already using the mobile communication channel. 45% offer mobile booking services, 38% have a mobile-optimized website. The majority of those who do not have a mobile booking solution yet are planning to get one in 2014. (TripAdvisor TripBarometer, April 2014)
· Trend Number 4: Holiday time is entertainment time, so digital content serves to entertain and provide information.
o The European digital content market is estimated to grow to approx. 29 billion euros by 2017. Revenues generated by digital content paid for via mobile operator payment are expected to amount to 5.2 billion euros by 2017. (Juniper Research)
o Spotify has more than 40 million active users and 10 million paying subscribers. The music service is available on computers, mobiles, tablets and home entertainment systems. Thanks to social media integration, music via Spotify can be shared on facebook, twitter, in blogs and by email. Currently Spotify is available in 56 countries.
o Since it was founded in 2009, the mobile sports app Runtastic has been downloaded 70 million times. 30 million of these are registered users on runtastic.com. (runtastic, March 2014)
· Trend Number 5: Digital content is also produced and shared during the holidays
o In March 2014, Dropbox had 300 million users. The worldwide file sharing service has recently launched “Carousel”, a photo and video service that can be used on all devices. (Dropbox, May 2014)
o Facebook currently has approx. 1 billion active users every day, and approx. 609 million mobile active users every month. (facebook, April 2014)
About DIMOCO
Founded in 2000, DIMOCO http://www.dimoco.eu has become one of the most successful mobile payment and messaging providers today. The B2B provider supports companies with bulk SMS and billing digital content via mobile operator invoices. DIMOCO’s infrastructure for mobile payment currently comprises a market potential of 1 billion mobile subscribers in a total of 32 countries. SMS can be sent all over the world via DIMOCO.
