Walletini is one of a small but
"Passbook does a small piece of what Walletini does as a whole," says Keith Goldberg, vice president of marketing at Vendini, the company behind the Walletini app. "It stores tickets or whatever you want; we do more than that … you can buy tickets right on the front end."
Apple's passbook is a wallet for other mobile wallets. Integration with passbook allows the Walletini app to alert ticket and coupon holders when they're close to the event space or retailer, says Goldberg.
It's similar to how the Starbucks payment app alerts users when they are near a favorite Starbucks store. The
Walletini, launched in 2001, has a payment function that allows users to sell the tickets stored within the app. Buyers pay with a credit or debit card, and the funds are received in the seller's linked bank account.
The most typical use case for the transfer feature is friends buying and sharing tickets for a concert they plan to attend together. Tens of thousands of consumers use Walletini, Goldberg says.
Walletini's payment function is in some ways like an escrow service. Tickets aren't actually transferred until the recipient pays. If recipients don't pay, the sender keeps ownership of the ticket.
"I think we have a chance to really stand above the rest to support other ticketing providers," Goldberg says.
The company can facilitate cross-platform transfers and purchases, and doesn't have to partner with third-party ticket providers for consumers to be able to store tickets (for example from Ticketmaster) in the wallet.
These features are one reason why Walletini isn't worried about the speculation that Apple will eventually add a payment method to Passbook, says Goldberg.
"This would just give consumers another way to transfer tickets," he says.
