DISQUS

VentureBeat: Ticket reselling site Seatwave lands $17M amid tough rivals

  • Nancy @ Chicago Buick Dealer · 5 months ago
    Ticket sales is a rapidly growing industry. Although its dangerous to be a small fish in the industry, if they develop themselves correctly they could make some really profits if they sell it
  • c_santiago · 5 months ago
    another $17MM? they must have a high burn rate..... look for the exit now!
  • Haggie · 5 months ago
    $17M? Really?

    I go to 1-2 shows a week and rarely buy my tickets in advance. I can almost always find a decent ticket on Craigslist for face value and when I have extra tickets I sell them on CL at face value and pay no fee.

    I don't see the exit strategy for these ticket resellers. Ticketmaster has built its own secondary market website, so I doubt they are interested in acquiring any of the competitors and I can't imagine any of them getting big enough for an IPO.

    I think all of these guys will end up in the no-man's land of respectable, but limited profitability in a market flooded with competition that keeps any one of them from getting too big.

    Also, expect a ton of expanded consumer protection ticket resale legislation to come after recent admissions from Ticketmast & LiveNation executives in Congressional hearings.
  • Really? · 5 months ago
    Haggle, have you been paying attention in the past five years?

    The secondary market is $3+ billion turnover. Ticketmaster's secondary site has been a failure. That is why they did make acquisitions, buying GetMeIn in Europe and TicketsNow in the US, which they probably must now divest. StubHub is the shining star of eBay, riding their multi-year baseball agreement. According to the Deloitte survey, TicketNetwork is one of the fastest growing companies in the US.

    The US congressional hearings were about the possible Ticketmaster-Live Nation merger in the primary ticketing industry. What does this have to do with the secondary market other than the government, fans, and artists want Ticketmaster no where near it? That would be consumer protection!

    Seatwave and Viagogo are leading the charge in Europe, simply using the blueprint from the US.