Innovation prize steers mobile event ticketing platform to takeoff

Three Kenyan techpreneurs have developed a mobile ticketing application that saves travellers the hustle of queuing to buy bus, air, and event tickets.

The application dubbed M-Shop is a platform that allows consumers to order, pay for, obtain and validate tickets for events, travel, goods, and services.

The techies — Kelvin Ziano, Marcel Auja, and Alloys Meshack developed and entered the mobile based application in last year’s Pivot 25 competition in which they emerged winners in the mobile payments and commerce category.

The competition, held in June, was conceptualised by m:lab East Africa. It was meant to spur creativity among mobile application developers.

Winning the competition gave the trio an opportunity to turn their dream idea into a business venture.

They won a $5,000 (Sh415,000) cash prize.

The award came with a one year incubation slot at m:lab East Africa, a technical development centre based at iHub in Nairobi.

The story of how the trio hatched the idea of creating a mobile based ticketing solution is at the very least bizarre.

“One of our friends lost his girlfriend after he was late to purchase a ticket for her to attend a party in town. This got us thinking that had it been possible to buy the ticket through a mobile phone perhaps the relationship would not have broken up,” said Auja, the CEO of MTL Systems, the company the trio formed to actualise their business idea.

The unfortunate event gave birth to a timely innovation that is M-Shop. Mobile ticketing refers to a solution where customers can procure tickets from any location and at any time using mobile phones.

“Mobile tickets increase customer convenience by providing a new and simple way of purchasing tickets. It also reduces production and distribution costs associated with traditional paper-based ticketing,” said Marcel.

The M-Shop application is available in Java and Symbian.

Blackberry and Android versions of the application are currently being developed and should be ready in a month’s time.

The solution is also provided through USSD (Unstructured Supplementary Service Data) technology which is accessible through any mobile phone. For now, the service is available to Safaricom subscribers by dialling *512#

The use of mobile phones beyond the traditional calling and texting functions is fast gaining currency in Kenya. The invention of M-Pesa converted mobile phones into mobile wallets which allow money transfer and payment of utilities such as water and electricity bills.