Fandango Buys Latin American Ticket-Seller Cinepapaya
Online movie ticketer Fandango has bought Latin American ticket-seller Cinepapaya for an undisclosed price, expanding operations into Mexico, Argentina, Colombia, Peru, Chile, Ecuador and Bolivia.
The deal, announced Thursdays, follows Fandango’s acquisition of Ingresso.com in Brazil last year with cinema ticketing up 30% year-over-year. Fandango also bulked up earlier this year by buying Flixster and the Rotten Tomatoes aggregator site.
“This is an exciting time at Fandango,” said President Paul Yanover. “While our business in the U.S. continues to accelerate across online, mobile and social platforms, we are bringing our innovative moviegoing products and services to even more consumers across Latin America. We are currently experiencing tremendous momentum in Brazil, with Ingresso’s significant growth, and with the addition of Cinepapaya, Fandango will emerge as a leading online ticketer throughout Latin America.”
The company said Latin America’s grew 13% in 2015, citing statistics from the Motion Picture Association of America. Fandango also said an online ticketing study published earlier this year by Grand View Research showed that the Latin American online movie ticketing market share is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of over 16% by 2022.
Yanover told Variety that Latin America’s middle-class is growing quickly and has a high familiarity with smartphone technology.
“We are thrilled to be part of the Fandango family,” said Manuel Olguin, Cinepapaya founder and CEO. “Expanding from a single movie theater in Peru in 2013 to more than 1,200 screens in seven countries today, Cinepapaya leads the way in mobile innovation and movie-related content in Latin America. All along our team has been enhancing the moviegoing experience for millions of users, while helping our exhibitor partners stay ahead of the latest technological trends.”
He added that he expects growth to accelerate with the new ownership. Peru-based Cinepapaya touts itself as offering a turnkey e-commerce solution for theater owners, including ticketing, payment, ticket validation and business intelligence software packages. Cinepapaya’s exhibition clients include Cinemark, Cinepolis, Cine Colombia, Cinestar and Cine Pavilion.
Fandango said its ticketing in the U.S. has gained 40% year-over-year with more than 70% of its tickets now sold on mobile devices for 28,000 screens. It portfolio reaches more than 60 million unique visitors per month, according to comScore, with 205 million app downloads. Fandango operates as a unit of NBCUniversal.
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