We launched our primary ticketing platform a year ago with one overarching goal: to get more fans to live events. Through our open API approach, an open ticketing ecosystem will create opportunities to increase distribution, empower teams and artists to sell on the platforms of their choice, and eliminate fraud through a process of barcode verification. At the end of the day, our goal is to increase discovery of live events by using the power of the open web, putting tickets where fans are already spending time online.
Today we’re taking a major step toward that goal, and are thrilled to add Facebook as a distribution partner for SeatGeek. As the world’s largest social media network, Facebook powers an incredible amount of delightful discovery of information for their users, whether it is through a news post, long-lost childhood friend, or adorable cat video. We’re stoked to be able to add a piece of the live entertainment world to that.
SeatGeek primary ticketing client Sporting Kansas City will be the first to utilize this new partnership, selling tickets directly to fans through Facebook. We’re excited to expand this partnership to more SeatGeek partners in 2018 as the industry moves toward openness.
While we have already seen great success with SeatGeek distribution partners such as Gametime and TicketNetwork, adding the world’s largest social network to the mix is a game changer for both clients and fans. Exposing inventory directly to fans on Facebook will make for a seamless shopping experience, resulting in more tickets sold, more events attended, and most importantly, more fun for fans.
Our Facebook partnership comes at an exciting time for SeatGeek, coinciding with the recent announcement of SeatGeek Enterprise, our powerful stack of primary ticketing services solidified into one brand. SeatGeek Enterprise promotes our vision of an open ticketing world, in which venues and rightsholders enjoy unprecedented flexibility, transparency and monetization potential. Our open distribution approach is a crucial piece of the SeatGeek Enterprise offering and one of the most important ways we are empowering rightsholders and putting more control in the hands of teams and venues.
We’re thrilled for fans to begin to see this partnership in action in their newsfeeds, as we continue to put the fan first in an industry that for too long has been more than happy to sit on its hands when it comes to innovation.