NBCUniversal’s Fandango is expanding its digital presence and bringing one of Brazil’s largest online movie ticketing services to its mobile application to gain greater traction within the Latin America film market.

The digital ticketing retailer recently acquired Ingresso, another online events retailer located in Brazil and hopes to merge it with its app as well as its desktop Web site. Fandango is hoping to significantly increase its presence with Latin film, and corner the film market on a whole.

“Competing event ticket apps should not be surprised to see Fandango continue to press ahead with additional expansion,” said Ryan Grogman, vice president, Boston Retail Partners. “Combined with their acquisition of Movieclips in 2014, moving into additional entertainment offerings and geographical markets is a logical progression for this market leader.

“It should serve notice that these other apps will need to find creative and unique ways to grab and retain the tech-savvy entertainment consumers,” he said.

Acquisition
Fandango will now have access to Ingresso’s six million registered users as well as its film and event partnerships. The ticketing service is also largely known for its soccer games, concerts and cultural events.

Ingresso’s mobile and digital products will move to Fandango’s app, Web site and YouTube channel as well as its branding, marketing prowess and large presence on YouTube.

The Latin American Film market is a substantial facet of the film industry and Fandango is keen to target these consumers. Brazil made up 40 percent of the Latin American Film revenue at the box office in 2014.

In terms of box office growth, the country has been continually growing in the film industry, substantially growing within the past nine years. Brazil is also the largest film market in South America and projects to be the fifth largest in the world by 2020.

The retailer is keen to target this market in support of its attempt to become the leader in movie ticketing, as well as event commerce.

Fandango bought the Ingresso from its parent ecommerce company B2W Companhia Digital, based out of Rio de Janeiro. The merger follows another Fandango acquisition with its last year buy of Movieclips, a film clip and trailer streaming service.

The Ingresso brand name, as well as Ingress.com will still be intact following the acquisition.

Fandango’s endeavors
The mobile merchant also recently recognized an opportunity to extend the convenience of smartphone applications by having an Apple Watch app available when the device launched next month (see more).

The retailer saw record-breaking ticket sales come from mobile devices this past weekend, following the premiere of Universal Pictures’ film Fifty Shades of Grey (see more).

“Fandango is the leading mobile ticketing platform in the US, and this acquisition will help them gain an immediate position of leadership in the growing Latin American market,” Mr. Grogman said.

Final take
Brielle Jaekel is editorial assistant at Mobile Commerce Daily