Last night, US based booking service Eventbrite launched their Australian service, which promises to disrupt some cozy local incumbents.
The Australian ticket booking industry – like most of the nation’s business sectors – is dominated by two large players; Ticketmaster and Ticketek, with the latter dominating most ticket sales for big events.
Like most Australian duopolies, both Ticketmaster and Ticketek have a comfortable existence. With almost every ticket for major sporting, entertainment and cultural fixtures sold through their services, they’ve been allowed to neglect investing in new platforms while reaping monopoly profits from both attendees and organisers.
The development of online ticketing platforms like Eventbrite and Australian equivalents like Sticky Tickets are part of the disruption coming to this sector.
All of a sudden, event organisers don’t have to rely upon the grace and favours of major incumbents and ticket buyers aren’t getting slugged with outrageous “administrative fees” by the agencies.
The ticketing sector is one of these areas where decades of business practices have allowed middle men to develop, now a whole breed of new intermediaries are using technology to challenge the incumbents.
Integrating other technologies like reporting services, mailing lists and social media platforms along with hardware like iPad, iPhone and Android based management platforms for those on the door makes these services even more compelling to event organisers.
Right now the big incumbents probably aren’t taking these services too seriously as their cashflows, and management bonuses, seem safe and unassailable. Like all challenged industries, it might take them some time to figure out there is a real threat to their positions.
It will be interesting when a big events organiser or sports venue decides to move across to one of the newer ticketing companies, then we’ll see how the big incumbents deal with the threat to their businesses.
