StubHub Says Ticket Resales Are Booming, Thanks To Lower Prices

from the hot-tickets dept

Online ticket reseller StubHub says that sales revenues and volume were up significantly in the first quarter, as secondary ticket prices fell and lured in more buyers. The head of the company says he wishes he could have some control over the prices and keep them down so the volume (which drives StubHub's revenues) stays high, but the company really has no way to control that, since each individual seller that uses its platform will try to push the price as high as they can. In any case, Stubhub's booming business helps explain why Ticketmaster is trying to grow its own resale business, grabbing a cut from the original sale, and then the resale too. On a related note, the StubHub CEO says he's not concerned about Ticketmaster's increasing use of paperless tickets as a means to thwart scalpers: "There are ways that brokers can provide these tickets. They're not elegant. They don't provide a great experience to the fan... Where there's a will there’s a way, and there are both interested sellers and interested buyers." Inevitably, resellers will find a way around the system -- but somehow, as long as Ticketmaster finds a new revenue stream coming from it, it's hard to imagine the company will mind too much.

Carlo Longino is an expert at the Insight Community. To get insight and analysis from Carlo Longino and other experts on challenges your company faces, click here.

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EA Execs Also Worried About Second-Hand Sales... But With A Better Approach

from the recognizing-the-market dept

We recently wrote some video game execs complaining about how they should get a cut of any second-hand sales, apparently against the concept of the (well established) first sale doctrine. Reader EJDean alerts us to another article that quotes an exec at EA who also is complaining about second-hand sales, noting that it's a "critical situation." He makes an odd argument that video game companies probably do deserve a cut of the second hand market because digital products don't wear out, like normal second hand goods. Again, he may want to understand the first sale doctrine, as well as basic economics where the availability of a resale market helps increase the value of the initial product.

But, the good news is that while EA would like to get a cut of the secondhand market, it seems to at least realize that seriously pursuing it would be a problem. Instead, the company seems more focused on giving people reasons to pay, such as through additional online services that make it worthwhile for people to pay, rather than freaking out too much about second hand sales. This is the right approach. Rather than worrying about second-hand sales, find a business model where that's not even an issue.

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