Back in December, Tamebay reported that StubHub (an eBay-owned secondary seller for event tickets and the like) had opened its virtual doors in the UK. More details have been revealed recently in this highly controversial sector. The practices of online ticket seller Viagogo were recently criticised in a Channel 4 Dispatches documentary last month.
Viagogo was started by StubHub founder Eric Baker. Viagogo unsucessfully attempted to stop Channel 4 airing The Great Ticket Scandal in February. eBay acquired StubHub in 2007 for slightly less than £200m.
But Stubhub seems to be going great guns. Already the beta site, which officially launched last week, claims to have 140,000 tickets for sale and there are plans to open High Street shops too.
The first shop is planned for Great Portland Street in London later in the year. The outlets will allow sellers to drop off tickets and let fans buy and pick up tickets. Other pop-up stores are planned elsewhere in the country.
Opening a shop in the West End (even if it’s not in the heart of Theatreland) is a bold and clever move. It legitimises the operation and puts them head-to-head with the other outlets that sell same day tickets to musicals and shows in the capital to tourists.
Whether it’s enough to draw criticism from this controversial sector is unlikely. But it’s clear that competition in the tickets secondary market isn’t going away. Indeed, it’s hotting up.
One Response
Great guns!!! Really.
I think Stubhub are going to find it much harder than they thought it would be.
They are massive in the states due to the partnership deals with sports clubs, they won’t get such deals in the UK.
Sales so far have been pitiful compared to their 3 competitors.
The site looks very poor compared to their competitors.
They appear to think that having a shop will be a winning formula, Seatwave already have 2 that are in much more convenient locations. Sales through the shops are a tiny proportion of overall sales. My guess is that it’s less than Half a percente of overall transactions.
Having a shop in Great Portland Street is madness, why have one in a place that is out of the way? Seatwaves is in HMV Trocadero. Can’t get much more central than that.
I think if Stubhub don’t get more people on the ground here then it could well go the same way as Bestbuy.