Soon, you’ll be able to buy those highly sought-after Beyoncé tickets through Ticketmaster, directly on Facebook.
The feature – which is supposed to launch at the end of April – was first reported by BuzzFeed News.
The news comes just ahead of Facebook’s F8 developer conference, where Messenger bots are expected to be a big part of the social giants announcements.
For years, companies have looked at shifting commerce operations, at least in part to Facebook. Some of those plans have been successful, others haven’t – but for things like events, going to Facebook as a way to sell more tickets makes sense.
Dan Armstrong, Ticketmaster’s VP of distributed commerce, told BuzzFeed that “by putting the ability to buy tickets directly within Facebook we hope that we’re going to provide a more seamless purchase experience and sell more tickets.”
It’s not clear exactly how this process will work. You can buy tickets on Facebook – and technically tickets will be processed there – but you’ll still have to claim a purchase on Ticketmaster.com.
For major ticketing events – think Beyoncé or Adele – buying on Facebook likely won’t offer any alternative over using Ticketmaster’s website or mobile apps. Instead, it’s imagined that this will be a good option for smaller shows or events that don’t sell out and that already have event pages on the social network.
Facebook will collect an affiliate fee from Ticketmaster for each ticket it sells.
For whatever reason, high-tech ticketing is having a bit of a moment. Last month, StubHub – an eBay subsidiary – announced that users will be able to use VR to get a preview of where their seats are in an arena before purchase.
In past conversations with Ticketmaster, the company has emphasized its focus on alternative platforms – including mobile and watch apps. Facebook is just the latest extension of that.
We’re also seeing more platforms become ticket affiliates too. Pandora is now pushing users to get notifications for concert tickets for the bands they listen to. Spotify’s mobile app has offered a similar service through Songkick since November.
BuzzFeed also reports that users will be able to purchase tickets — though not from Ticketmaster — through Facebook Messenger’s assistant, M. This is just another example of the ways in which ticket vendors are targeting various platforms.
We’re also increasingly seeing inroads that ticketing companies are making for redeeming tickets. Apple Wallet support and QR coded tickets are now the norm more than a one-off. And thanks to the emergence of platforms like SeatGeek and StubHub, even giants like Ticketmaster are having to make it easier for users to actually sell or transfer tickets to others, legally.
It is worth noting that a lot of early efforts to move commerce to Facebook has failed. But the nature of tickets – not to mention the Messenger integration – could mean this is successful for Facebook and Ticketmaster.
