Ticketmaster, a US ticket sales system under Live Nation Entertainment, announced plans last week to expand into Asia by acquiring Taiwan’s Tixcraft Inc. and launching Ticketmaster Singapore, increasing its presence to 32 countries around the world. Ticketmaster is a global ticketing giant with over 500 million tickets processed yearly.
“By bringing Ticketmaster’s technology and service to Taiwan and tapping into the company’s huge global network, we will revolutionize the ticketing experience for fans, venues, sports clubs and event organizers in Taiwan,” said KT Chiu, chief executive officer of Tixcraft who founded the Taiwanese ticketing platform in 2014.
However, some Taiwanese users are concerned about certain features of Ticketmaster, including the “resale” function that allows buyers to sell tickets at higher prices — such tickets are seen as “scalper tickets” in Taiwan. In order to assuage concerns, Live Nation Entertainment has said that functions inappropriate for Taiwan may be removed from the Taiwanese system.
Photo courtesy of Big Hit Entertainment
照片︰Big Hit Entertainment提供
(Eddy Chang, Taipei Times)
理想國演藝公司旗下的Ticketmaster售票系統，上週宣布拓展亞洲版圖，收購台灣的拓元售票系統，並在新加坡推出Ticketmaster Singapore，將其業務擴增至全球三十二個國家。Ticketmaster可說是售票系統的領導品牌，每年處理超過五億張各式票券。
拓元執行長邱光宗說：「把Ticketmaster的技術和服務引進台灣，運用公司廣布全球的龐大網路，我們將全面翻轉台灣粉絲、場館、體育俱樂部和活動主辦單位的票務體驗。」這個本土售票平台是他在二○一四年所創立。
不過有些台灣使用者，對Ticketmaster的功能感到憂心，例如「再次販售」的功能允許買家以高價轉賣自己的票券——而這就像是台灣俗稱的「黃牛票」。為了澄清疑慮，理想國回應不適合台灣風土民情的系統功能，將可能會視情況刪減。
（台北時報張聖恩〉
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