State of the Market: Four Challenges Shaping the Ticketing Landscape in 2025
- By Chaix Manon
- In
Yann Chermat, Chief Operating Officer, Calypso Network Association
While we often reflect and talk about transformative years, 2024 stands out as a key milestone for Calypso. We witnessed our standard providing the foundation to the Paris transport ticketing system during the Olympics, as well as its market-first integration into Apple and Samsung Wallets. The result is Calypso Mobile is expected to reach 10 million virtual cards by early 2025. Meanwhile, demand for Calypso Light and Calypso Basic continued to grow, particularly in response to the need for secure and reload tickets for occasional passengers.
When we are so focused on our individual operations, it’s easy to forget that every day the Calypso standard powers 35 million journeys across more than 170 city regions worldwide. New implementations are taking place globally all the time, and we’re seeing a growing, dedicated community of ticketing players joining our association. The demand for, and commitment to Calypso shows continued growth and strength.
But we are not naive to the changing market dynamics that face our community:
- The industry is focused on account-based ticketing, with systems led by the payments community – such as Mastercard and Visa – getting visibility.
- The main chip suppliers are focusing their platform development on banking and government sector requirements, so technical advances are centred on Type A ISO 14443 This means it is essential that ticketing equipment is compliant with the standard processing of both Type A and Type B ISO media.
- Regulation is playing a welcome role in defining regional standards to ensure the delivery of reliable and secure digital ecosystems, but it often comes at a cost and can require technical upgrades and changes in how we do things.
- And crucially, budgets are shrinking. Every technical advancement and implementation needs to be scalable, optimised and offer a clear ROI for travellers.
The reality is that it has never been more important for ticketing operators and network providers to have sovereignty of their systems. Without doubt, 2025 will be a further test to the resilience and resolve of the ticketing, mobility and access communities.
For operators and networks to manage these dynamics, they must:
- Know their customer. This is no longer a choice but a need. A transit app places passengers at the centre of the travel experience, and gaining traveller data is key to providing a true and seamless user experience by virtualising routes, guiding travellers through their journey and offering them the best mobility packages.
- Ensure systems are agile, and operators and networks have the ability to manage and control advances, rather than have enforced technical upgrades regulated by outside parties and industries. Systems also need to successfully co-exist to enable the delivery of tailored ticketing for a range of demographics.
- Safeguard revenue: it is about controlling costs, protecting sales against fraud and guaranteeing the reliability of information. Avoiding unforeseen operational fees and ensuring the ability to multi-source products is vital to deliver competitive pricing for quality service. This open approach not only promotes competition and lowers the total cost of ownership, but also inspires innovation based on proven standards.
And this is what the Calypso Standard gives its users. Calypso Network Association is the global transport ticketing community. We work to represent you: your needs, your ambitions and your technology.
We believe in open source alongside open standards to ensure ‘plug and play’ technology that is reliant, accessible and trusted. As a collective voice we can explain and represent our needs to regulators. And vitally, by working together we can develop the infrastructure and systems that empowers ticketing operators and networks to master their own systems.
Join us, contribute, and advance this Calypso Standard with your peers.
