The Space Cinema and Mastercard: going to the Cinema is easier than ever

No more queues: new The Space Cinema app gets tickets out of your hands into your phone for seamless cinema experience. Ciaki, an innovative chatbot integrated into the app, allows personalised shopping experience and tailored promotions

 As Mobile World Congress 2019 gets under way, Mastercard and The Space launch together The Space Cinema, a new app that offers cinema lovers a simpler and tailored way to go to the movies using their smartphone, without worrying about queues at the ticket office.

The app, available for iOS and Android, allows consumers to buy tickets for movies with just one click in a fast and safe way through their smartphone, with their card previously registered in the app wallet. It also facilitates search where consumers can view trailers and read the detailed synopsis of the films that will be played in more than 300 screens of The Space Cinema circuit across Italy plus get access to bespoke promotions and premieres.

Instead of queuing, cinema lovers can buy their tickets through the app, without need for printing, then simply show the barcode and skip the ticket office

The Space Cinema app is enhanced by the integration of Ciaki, a chatbot that functions through AI, which is always available for consumers to buy tickets, and that can suggest cinemas and movies according to user preferences, providing a non-stop assistance service. In the future, Ciaki will be able to deeper analyse each user’s preferences, recognize habits and suggest personalized notifications and updates.

“At Mastercard we believe that new payment technologies, such as apps and chatbots, based on AI, are key to revolutionize the relationship between companies and customers, making the shopping experience more engaging and interactive, in physical and digital environment” – states Luca Corti, Vice President Business Development Mastercard – “We are proud of our collaboration with The Space on a project that connect the safety and easiness of digital payments to the passion for cinema of consumers.”

“The collaboration with Mastercard allowed us to take a step further towards a new approach to the cinema and entertainment market” explains Tommaso Chiesa, Head of Digital & CVM The Space Cinema, “The new app focus our attention on the customer, in order to always offer him unique and exciting experiences. Designed on the latest user experience standards for the entertainment market, the app will become a platform to purchase popcorns and beverages online, and to take part to contests, games and further social sharing activities. We want to offer an unprecedented entertainment experience outside and inside the screening rooms.”

The new app already provides interaction with the main mobile wallets for NFC payments and will soon be integrated with Apple Pay and Google Pay payment systems. Furthermore, the Ciaki chatbot will soon be enabled as a Google Home and Amazon Alexa skill.

About Mastercard

Mastercard (NYSE: MA), www.mastercard.com, is a technology company in the global payments industry. Our global payments processing network connects consumers, financial institutions, merchants, governments and businesses in more than 210 countries and territories. Mastercard products and solutions make everyday commerce activities – such as shopping, traveling, running a business and managing finances – easier, more secure and more efficient for everyone. Follow us on Twitter @MastercardNews, join the discussion on the Beyond the Transaction Blog and subscribe for the latest news on the Engagement Bureau.

The Space

The Space circuit has been acquired by Vue International in November 2014, it includes 36 cinemas for a total of 362 screening rooms and it’s the second biggest Italian cinema circuit. The  Space Cinema includes modern and innovative multiscreen with an amphitheatre seat disposition and, in particular, two iconic cinemas in the centre of Milan (Odeon) and Rome (Moderno), often hosting some of the most important movie premieres. Vue Entertainment International, founded in 2003 in United Kingdom by Timothy Richards and Alan McNail, is based in UK, Ireland, Germany, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Taiwan with revenues for €900 million, one and a half times more the whole Italian market. The Space Cinema mission is to put the consumers at the centre, in order to offer the best quality in terms of cinema infrastructure and exclusive contents.