{"id":6953,"date":"2018-03-05T15:24:58","date_gmt":"2018-03-05T20:24:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/digital.hbs.edu\/platform-digit\/submission\/just-the-ticket-the-evolution-of-seatgeek\/"},"modified":"2018-03-05T15:26:21","modified_gmt":"2018-03-05T20:26:21","slug":"just-the-ticket-the-evolution-of-seatgeek","status":"publish","type":"hck-submission","link":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-digit\/submission\/just-the-ticket-the-evolution-of-seatgeek\/","title":{"rendered":"Just the Ticket: The Evolution of SeatGeek"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ticketing for live entertainment is an industry full of platform companies.\u00a0 The U.S. market for online event ticket sales is roughly $9 billion and has averaged a low double-digit growth rate for the past five years.[i]<\/a>\u00a0 The industry has been dominated in recent years by Ticketmaster and StubHub.[ii]<\/a> \u00a0SeatGeek, founded in 2009, offers a fascinating journey of a platform player that has shifted its strategy over time from complementing the large players to competing directly against them.<\/p>\n

At their core, ticketing platforms serve two primary sides: ticket buyers and ticket sellers.\u00a0 The sellers are often broken down into two types: the original rights holders and re-sellers.\u00a0 Platforms provide a mechanism through which sellers can post their tickets at their desired price.\u00a0 Prospective buyers can browse tickets and make purchases.\u00a0 The platform typically claims either a percentage of the ticket price from the seller and\/or a service fee from the buyer.<\/p>\n

SeatGeek began as a pure aggregator, like Kayak is for the travel industry.[iii]<\/a>\u00a0 Instead of having sellers post tickets directly to their site\/app, SeatGeek aggregated tickets being offered on many different re-seller platforms and allowed users to compare those aggregated prices.\u00a0 When a buyer made a purchase, the platform on which the ticket was listed would pay a referral fee to SeatGeek.[iv]<\/a>\u00a0 By entering the market in this way, SeatGeek was able to complement the incumbents and avoid their ire.\u00a0 Additionally, this strategy enabled SeatGeek to gather a lot of data which they used to improve the customer experience.\u00a0 They created a proprietary \u201cDeal Score\u201d algorithm that helped ticket buyers determine whether a ticket seller\u2019s offer was a good value based on factors such as seat location, historical prices, prices of other seats, and event popularity (see pictures below).[v]<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\u00a0\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

As SeatGeek grew, StubHub came to view SeatGeek as a threat to its business rather than just a complement.[vi]<\/a>\u00a0 In 2014, StubHub removed all their tickets from the SeatGeek site.\u00a0 SeatGeek responded by deciding to add direct re-sale services to their platform, thus allowing sellers to post tickets directly to their site.\u00a0 The company has taken many steps to differentiate themselves from the competition in the eyes of both buyers and sellers.\u00a0 From the buyers\u2019 perspective, SeatGeek has prided itself on providing transparent pricing and only charging the sellers for their service.[vii]<\/a>\u00a0 That helps to attract buyers who are bothered by the high \u201cservice fees\u201d on other sites.\u00a0 Additionally, both buyers and sellers benefit from SeatGeek\u2019s investment in a top-notch mobile experience.\u00a0 \u00a0As of late 2012, 75% of SeatGeek purchases occurred on mobile compared to just 36% for StubHub and 21% for Ticketmaster.[viii]<\/a>\u00a0 It\u2019s also free and simple for a user to transfer tickets to another person using the SeatGeek app (something that StubHub and Ticketmaster\u2019s apps didn\u2019t allow at the time).[ix]<\/a>\u00a0 This feature elicits direct network effects as both parties looking to complete the transfer will need the app.\u00a0 Finally, ticket sellers can receive payment directly into their Venmo account, lowering any barriers for users who prefer not to divulge their banking information.[x]<\/a>\u00a0 Offering these sorts of conveniences to users could help to reduce multi-homing in an industry in which that\u2019s a very common practice.<\/p>\n

SeatGeek\u2019s most recent move attempts to establish the company in the market for ticket sales from right\u2019s holders (such as sports teams, concert venues, or artists).\u00a0 In 2016 they rolled out SeatGeek Open which is an open API that third-party companies can build into their own sites\/apps or those of collaborators.[xi]<\/a>\u00a0 Thus, sellers will be able to use SeatGeek functionality to sell tickets without posting their tickets on the SeatGeek site\/app (SeatGeek will continue to claim a % of sales as commission).\u00a0 This opens the door for the possibility of interesting collaborations.\u00a0 For example, a sports team could partner with Uber to sell both tickets and rides to the game through the Uber app.[xii]<\/a>\u00a0 Other potential channels through which the API could enable ticket sales include Amazon, Facebook Messenger, or artists\u2019 own websites.[xiii]<\/a> Ticketmaster also released it\u2019s own API in 2016, but SeatGeek\u2019s differs in that anyone is allowed to use it while Ticketmaster requires the third-party company to enter into some degree of partnership first.[xiv]<\/a><\/p>\n

In less than ten years of existence, SeatGeek has undergone a significant transformation from a seemingly unremarkable aggregator platform to an innovative threat to the industry\u2019s incumbents.\u00a0 While the incumbents\u2019 scale is still formidable, they\u2019re undoubtedly having to take note of this upstart that is giving ticket buyers and sellers the ability to complete transactions on their terms.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Sources:<\/p>\n

[i]<\/a> https:\/\/www.ibisworld.com\/industry-trends\/specialized-market-research-reports\/online-retail\/lifestyle-services\/online-event-ticket-sales.html<\/a><\/p>\n

[ii]<\/a> https:\/\/finance.yahoo.com\/news\/stubhub-recognized-single-source-ticketing-011011659.html<\/a><\/p>\n

[iii]<\/a> https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2015-12-17\/ticket-aggregator-seatgeek-moves-into-reselling-takes-on-stubhub<\/a><\/p>\n

[iv]<\/a> https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2015-12-17\/ticket-aggregator-seatgeek-moves-into-reselling-takes-on-stubhub<\/a><\/p>\n

[v]<\/a> https:\/\/seatgeek.com\/deal-score<\/a><\/p>\n

[vi]<\/a> https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2015-12-17\/ticket-aggregator-seatgeek-moves-into-reselling-takes-on-stubhub<\/a><\/p>\n

[vii]<\/a> http:\/\/vator.tv\/news\/2015-11-19-seatgeek-targets-stubhub-with-new-ticket-marketplace<\/a><\/p>\n

[viii]<\/a> https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2015-12-17\/ticket-aggregator-seatgeek-moves-into-reselling-takes-on-stubhub<\/a><\/p>\n

[ix]<\/a> https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2015-12-17\/ticket-aggregator-seatgeek-moves-into-reselling-takes-on-stubhub<\/a><\/p>\n

[x]<\/a> http:\/\/vator.tv\/news\/2015-11-19-seatgeek-targets-stubhub-with-new-ticket-marketplace<\/a><\/p>\n

[xi]<\/a> https:\/\/venturebeat.com\/2016\/08\/11\/seatgeek-takes-on-ticketmaster-with-primary-ticketing-platform-that-can-be-integrated-into-any-app\/<\/a><\/p>\n

[xii]<\/a> https:\/\/venturebeat.com\/2016\/08\/11\/seatgeek-takes-on-ticketmaster-with-primary-ticketing-platform-that-can-be-integrated-into-any-app\/<\/a><\/p>\n

[xiii]<\/a> https:\/\/venturebeat.com\/2016\/08\/11\/seatgeek-takes-on-ticketmaster-with-primary-ticketing-platform-that-can-be-integrated-into-any-app\/<\/a><\/p>\n

[xiv]<\/a> https:\/\/venturebeat.com\/2016\/08\/11\/seatgeek-takes-on-ticketmaster-with-primary-ticketing-platform-that-can-be-integrated-into-any-app\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SeatGeek has evolved from an aggregation platform to a platform that competes directly with large incumbents like StubHub and Ticketmaster for the business of re-sellers and original ticket rights holders.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2340,"featured_media":6954,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","categories":[648,618],"class_list":["post-6953","hck-submission","type-hck-submission","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","category-ticket","hck-taxonomy-organization-seatgeek","hck-taxonomy-industry-entertainment-and-recreation","hck-taxonomy-country-united-states"],"connected_submission_link":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-digit\/assignment\/growing-businesses-in-the-age-of-platforms-2018\/","yoast_head":"\nJust the Ticket: The Evolution of SeatGeek - Digital Innovation and Transformation<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-digit\/submission\/just-the-ticket-the-evolution-of-seatgeek\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Just the Ticket: The Evolution of SeatGeek - 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