We all know StubHub as a ticket marketplace operating in 48 countries that sells a ticket just about every second or so. But it looks like they’re looking to expand into a variety of new entertainment arenas and to help them achieve that they’re making some development and platform changes to accommodate their ambitions.
That’s why they’ll be moving their platform to Google Cloud and Pivotal Cloud Foundry as the basis of their infrastructure moving forward and AI (artificial intelligence) will be a central part of the new services they offer to merchants and consumers.
Although the exact nature of their expansion plans hasn’t been revealed. Once senior executive noted, rather candidly, that the moves would help “remove the muck that comes with how developers work today.” The transition will happen gradually and be appraised as it happens for effectiveness in achieving the goals.
We’re coming from a place where we are largely on premise. Our aim is to become increasingly agile — where we are going to focus on building balanced and focused teams with a global mindset. We are aiming to build some of the most powerful AI systems focused on this space so we can be ahead of our customers.
– Matt Swann, StubHub Chief Technical Officer
Technological changes are not in themselves all that exciting or important to the everyday observer. But it is interesting that StubHub wants to expand its sphere of operations and it’s going to be fascinating to understand where they want to operate next. Watch this space.
And it is also notable that this eBay-owned company is open to the cloud and new ideas. It wouldn’t be surprising if they were essentially also performing a role as a petri dish for the broader eBay group, including the eBay marketplace core business, and experimenting with ideas and approaches that could be applied more widely across their portfolio of businesses.
