NEW YORK, May 3, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Earlier this month, both Ticketmaster and Eventbrite announced almost on the same day that they will start selling tickets directly through Facebook. Last week in the Ticketing Technology Forum in Dublin, SAP also unveiled their own social ticketing solution.
Since social commerce was a buzzword in 2011, it never really took off in the ticketing sector. 2016 might be a turning point for social ticketing as both Ticketmaster and Eventbrite's research shows. Live Analytics, Ticketmaster's research division, published in August 2014 research showing that 52% of Facebook users are interested in seeing where their Facebook friends are sitting in events.
Earlier this year FutureTix consulting conducted a survey among ticketing professionals which showed that 97% of ticketing professionals think that social ticketing will be an important sales channel in the future. Now that Ticketmaster, Eventbrite and SAP have decided to sell tickets through Facebook, the future has arrived.
Doug Lions is now partner at FutureTix and former Tickets.com and AXS/AEG executive. He has seen firsthand the changing approach towards social ticketing in recent years: "There's been a disconnect between the growth of social activity and our industry's ability to capitalize on this trend. As our research shows, acknowledgement of the importance of mobile and social – which are hugely intertwined – is not matched by effective tools to take advantage of the captive audience in this realm."
Startups and smaller flexible companies identify new trends faster than the big industry players. Evento Social Promotion started selling tickets on Facebook back in 2011. The company developed a social seating map that enables ticket buyers to see where their friends are sitting and to invite others to join them. Evento's platform integrates into external ticketing systems, giving event owners the option to sell through Facebook without changing their ticketing suppliers.
Evento works with 30 sports teams and entertainment venues in the US and Europe. CEO Ophir Zardok explains: "We identified the potential of social ticketing several years ago and developed a proven platform that effectively connects between social media followers, ticketing systems and event promotion. We already know which features are more effective than others."
It seems that the days in which tickets were sold online without any social features will look as outdated as going to the box office and standing in line. Now that Ticketmaster, Eventbrite and SAP have launched their social ticketing platforms, which other big players will be the next to join them?
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SOURCE Evento
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