Facebook’s moves in 2016 have furthered its overarching plan to make sure users never set foot outside its service, with ticket purchasing soon to be entirely housed within the social network.
Both Ticketmaster and Eventbrite appear to be working with Facebook to allow the latter to host their ticket-selling services. The reasoning, presumably, is to tap into the mobile natives of today that spend less time on websites and more time on social media and in apps.
Of all those social media apps Facebook, quite clearly, is the big one.
Last summer, research into US smartphone users found that, on average, people spend around 84pc of their time on just five preferred apps. Facebook is a commonly chosen one, representing 13pc of all app use in the US.
So if you’re a ticketing platform – or a car rental, hotel booking, or dress selling service – getting inside this captured market could prove a big boon to your business.
Thus, Eventbrite and Ticketmaster joining the fold, with the service expected in the coming weeks. When you consider one of the earliest things Facebook users did was like fan pages and interact with other fans, this makes a good bit of sense.
“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,” said Ticketmaster’s Dan Armstrong to BuzzFeed.
Facebook has already found other ways to build outside services into their apps, with Messenger, Pages and Instant Articles upping the ante in recent months.
Now, with users able to buy tickets to their favourite gigs – which they will do anyway – all while staying in the app, it adds up to more time spent on Facebook, more user data received and, therefore, better advertising options.
Ticket image via Shanti Hesse/Shutterstock
