Italian market analysis for a bus ticketing platform
- 1. BUS MARKET SIZE
# of passengers: 2.6 billion passenger-km (prof. Beria et al.) (just national lines)
Average ticket price: 35,7€ (my valuation)
Range: € 0,65pax/km – 0,75pax/km (Beria)
Range: €20 (200km trip) – €60 (1000km trip) (Italian routes) (Beria et al.)
# tickets sold: 7 M per year, (10 M valuation in 2014)
583+K per month,
19+K per day (Biscotti, president of ANAV)
# of routes: 27,000 out of about 115,000 formally allowed (Beria et al.)
Bus market size in sales: € 250 M (km 90 national lines, km 50 international lines) (database ANAV) – Italian routes: € 169 and 195 M (Beria)
Expected growth rate 10% (Beria et al.) - Today just the 5% of sales online (Clickbus valutation) - Commission for
GoEuro 10-15% = 25-37,5 M bus market size in sales for online bus ticketing platforms (source: Wanderio)
Sales channel in the country: ticket offices (at bus terminal/station)
SISAL circuit (40,000 agencies)
Bar (most frequented in the village)
Travel agencies
Website
On board
Mobile version of the site (sometimes)
App (some companies)
© Fabio Pescante - July 2014
- 2. BUS LINES & COMPETITION
Key players:
- 4 players (Simet, Marozzi, Marino, Baltour+Sena) 30,44%*
- 7 players (Intersaj, IVI interlines, IAS scura, Ferrovie del Gargano, Roma Marche Linee, Romano, Lirosi) 26,11%*
- 31 companies 43,44%*
Competition:
- GoEuro $ 31+ M funding - Ibus and at least 6 other Italian bus - 60 employees (early they will be 90)
- Clickbus (potential) $ 12,5 M funding - 60K tickets sold globally per month - 180 bus companies partner - 100 employees
- BusBud $ 10,2 M funding - 1500+ bus companies partner - 34+ employees
- Autobus.it / Mycicero(app) 28 players (developer www.pluservice.net/) 490K**
10-50K installs (app)
- https://boa.busbookingline.it Baltour Group 340K**
- Ibus.it Alliance of nine companies 140K**
- webus.it (x companies) 45K**
- oraribus.com not owned by any coach company 490K**
(no ticket on line, redirect to web ticketing platform)
- Multimodal transport search engine: wanderio, youmove.me, waymate, fromatob, kelbillet.com, rome2rio (b2b), routerank (b2b),
GDS: unkwnown
*Percentage of km per year produced (national lines) ** visits of the website In June 2014 (similarweb.com)
© Fabio Pescante - July 2014
- 3. MARKET ENTRY STRATEGY
Opportunities
Growing market, coach tickets cheaper than airfares and train tickets, favorable trends, Expo 2015 (20M of visitors expected, 5 M tickets already sold)
Risks
Unknown sector for Italians, BlaBlacar, wi-fi coverage
Marketing strategy
Focus on the Southern region and under 26s, integration of the italian routes in the mobile app, aggregation of the small companies.
Typical passenger
Under 26s, over 60s, low income
Market campaign
- Embedding of the search widget in strategic sites (Trenitardo, Studenti.it), communities of backpackers (Interrail)
- Partnership with websites (embedding of the search widget) that successfully organize trips for students (iugo.it, vgmania.eu) and with the Erasmus Student
Network (ESN)
- Create a dedicated bus finder for the Expo 2015
- (offline) Promotional tour in the Universities and in Siena, Milan and Rome and in the beaches of the Adriatic sea
© Fabio Pescante - July 2014
- 4. REGULATIONS & GOVERNMENT
- No subsidies from the government
- Liberalised but with administrative barriers
- Companies privately-owned
- fsbusitalia.it is 100% controlled by the governement - owned Ferrovie dello
Stato
© Fabio Pescante - July 2014
