Over the past few days, I’ve had the opportunity to learn quite a bit about the new rules that Google is putting in place to certify resellers and try and eliminate some of the sketchier practices that go on when tickets are being sold.
Here are a few of my key takeaways.
- This isn’t an American issue, it is a global issue: Being versed in the world of tickets around the globe, I don’t always take an America first view of every action or inaction that Google or any international organization takes. After hearing about what Google is working on, it seems that as much as anything, the actions that are driving Google’s thought process are directed as much at Viagogo as it is anything in the United States.
- The certification process won’t stop resale or harm it at all: But if the program is successful, it will make it more difficult for nefarious resellers to find a way to operate openly on the internet. In working with the NATB on a number of issues, I know that their viewpoint is that they want to see everyone that is involved in reselling tickets to operate under a principle of “resale done right.” The changes that Google is offering up would really only enhance what the NATB is already suggesting for its members.
- There will be more transparency in ticket resale: One of the ideas that Google is enforcing is that resellers will have to show price transparency before any sort of payment process is activated. That means you won’t get sticker shock after purchase because someone springs a boatload of fees on you after you have agreed to buy the tickets. That’s good for consumers, but if resellers are smart it will enable them to do a better job of building a book of business that they can market to.
- What is “face value” is likely to never be answered: This seems like the trickiest thing going. Google has no answer. Anyone that is around tickets at all knows that the idea of face value is fluid depending on the situation. But as more and more people move towards dynamic pricing, the concept of “face value” may be a thing of the past.
- Most of the innovation in tickets is still being driven by the secondary market and countries outside of the United States: At INTIX, there were huge whoops for the idea that Google was going to stop resellers from using deceptive URLs. That’s great, but from conversations I had, I think that a lot of the people cheering also felt like by not using those URLs that this would automatically win them a better position in the search page rankings. That’s not true. There’s still the keyword bidding process, SEO, content linking, and other tools of the trade that help influence the rankings on the Google search page. Which highlights one key idea, that the secondary market and many of the European markets are way ahead on creating an environment where innovation of digital marketing occurs, innovation in customer acquisition, and innovation in products. While cutting out the use of deceptive URLs is a win for everyone that sells tickets the right way, I don’t think it is going to have the ultimate effect of pushing primary sellers directly to the top.
This is an interesting topic and one that I think we will see play out in surprising ways over the next 12 months.
What I am pretty sure of is that what we think all of the changes to Google means today is likely not to be the case in 12 months time.