Concert tickets run out in seconds, and "scalpers" make money
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Our reporter's investigation found that channel tickets that are not publicly sold are the main source of scalper tickets

From May 5 to 26, Mayday's "Wish to See You" concert will run for three consecutive days at the Bird's Nest, and with the "Noah's Ark 28th Anniversary Evolution Remastered Limited Edition" held this weekend, the six concerts are expected to be watched by more than 10,30 people.

Even ahead of the concert was the battle between Mayday fans and scalpers over concert tickets, which detonated the public opinion in May. Various questions followed: Where did the scalper tickets come from? Why do scalpers keep banning? Can the strong real-name system block scalpers? A few days ago, a reporter from Beijing Youth Daily conducted an investigation into the concert "scalper".

Scalpers recruit "sought-after" groups to grab tickets

Since most concerts currently adopt the real-name system to purchase tickets, a large number of generation scalpers have been born. They continue to recruit "sought-afters" on social platforms, and organize groups to rush into the ticketing platform to grab tickets as soon as concert tickets are on sale.

In an online second-hand trading platform, the keyword "proxy robbery" has been blocked, but through the keyword "proxy shooting", the Beiqing News reporter found relevant content. A seller with the online name "Xiaowen" put out the slogan of "Recruit for auction, grab tickets for popular concerts, and give priority to grabbing tickets", and the Beiqing News reporter contacted him, and Xiaowen gave a WeChat signal indicating that he could add WeChat for detailed chat.

To become a "sought-after" is to be assessed, and the Beiqing News reporter sent a screenshot of the order that successfully grabbed the ticket at the concert and passed the "preliminary assessment". Xiaowen introduced that he will advance the ticket money within the payment time after the order is created, without "sought-after" contribution, and the commission of a single order ranges from tens to five hundred yuan. Subsequently, Xiaowen pulled the Beiqing News reporter into a WeChat group called "Every ticket must be won".

On May 5, the WeChat group "Every Ticket Must Be Central" opened the robbery of Cai Xukun's Macao concert, and only one of the 19 group members grabbed 30,2580 yuan of grandstand seats. Nine days later, on the second-hand ticketing app "Ferris wheel", the price of 9 yuan grandstand tickets was raised to 2580 yuan.

Wang Yuan's concert in Chongqing required a strong real-name system to watch the performance. On May 5, the ticket release day, Xiaowen released the customer's name and ID number information and seat requirements in the group in advance, and asked the "sought-after" in the group to fill in the customer's information at the audience on the Damai APP.

On May 5, tickets for Liu Ruoying's concert in Beijing went on sale, and there were few ticket sales restrictions. Xiaowen prompts "@所有人, the audience fills in themselves", and this time the "sought-after" in the group posted screenshots of the 23 yuan and 1299 yuan tickets successfully snatched. On May 1599, on the Ferris wheel, Liu Ruoying's concert was priced at 5 yuan for 29 yuan and 1299 yuan for 1675 yuan.

Scalpers wait for the opportunity to fight back against "strong real names"

It is understood that in response to this kind of scalper, some organizers have set a higher ticket purchase threshold on the ticket platform authorized to sell, such as strong real name + non-transferable + non-refundable. On May 5, Liu Ruoying's Shanghai Station ticket stipulates that "the real-name system of purchasing tickets for admission under the real-name system is implemented, and it cannot be resold without resale", but on May 13, the organizer issued an announcement that many spectators were "participating in the real-name system ticket purchase for the first time, and did not have a deep understanding of the real-name system ticket purchase rules", so they specially opened a 5-hour "refund period" from 7 am to 7 pm on the 9th. On May 21, Liang Jingru's concert Shanghai station also issued the same announcement, also for "audiences who are not familiar with the rules of ticket purchase and performance", opening a two-time ticket refund channel.

This combination really drove the scalpers into a corner and deprived them of room to operate. But another problem arises. Before the organizer of a concert issued the announcement of the ticket refund, more than 200 viewers had already pulled a WeChat group to defend their rights. The organizers collected a table of reasons for each person's refund, most of which focused on illness, incorrect information about ticket buyers, duplicate ticket purchases, and conflicting work or exam times.

In fact, this seemingly organized ticket refund is not an accidental act, and similar situations have occurred in many concerts. According to industry insiders, although it is true that some viewers apply for refunds for objective reasons, it is not excluded that a considerable number of people are organized by scalpers. Due to measures such as "strong real names" taken by the organizers, the scalpers were caught off guard. The tickets in the hands of these scalpers can neither be resold nor smashed in their hands, and they can only force the organizer to refund the tickets.

Channel tickets are another type of scalper ticket

Scalpers are not just tickets that are publicly sold on ticketing platforms authorized by the organizer, there is another type of scalper ticket on the market. According to relevant regulations, the number of tickets for commercial performances sold to the market shall not be less than 70% of the approved number of audiences. The remaining 30%, that is, tickets that are not publicly sold, is the main source of scalpers, also known as channel tickets.

During the investigation, the Beiqing News reporter contacted a private ticket agent Ms. A. Ms. A spent $588 as a ticket agent for a media studio. In the introduction of this cultural company, it was mentioned that the company sells concert tickets, variety show recording places, press conferences, crew visits, fan meetings and other event places, as well as star peripherals.

After the studio releases the performance ticket information, the agent shares the information on social platforms at a price ranging from 100 to 300 yuan per order, collects the purchase information of fans, and then reports it to the studio. "The logic of markups is that the lower the price, the less you add, and the higher the price, the more you add up."

Ms. A revealed that her family mainly takes the channel, and most of them take tickets directly from the organizer. "The underlying model is actually that the organizer itself will deduct part of the tickets. Some of these tickets are exchanged for sponsors, promoters and other partners, and these tickets may appear in the market in the form of invitations. Some are left directly for their own 'tickets' (i.e. scalpers) to sell. 'Ticketing' gets the channel ticket with a higher price, and it will be sold after the price increase again. ”

The capital game behind channel tickets

The number of channel tickets depends on the show organizer. Ms. A took "Times Peak" as an example, "This year, all channels of the three-generation group concert of 'Times Peak' have not been replaced with tickets, and the performance tickets have been released to fans as much as possible, resulting in a particularly small number of channel tickets, and the ticket price obtained by scalpers is very high. "The counterexample is the concert of a domestic boy group. Due to policy reasons, the ticket price of this concert can not be set too high, but the cost of the concert is very high, the company behind it in order to make a profit deducted a lot of channel tickets, just in time for the performance site to strictly investigate the scalper, the company did not dare to hand over the ticket to the scalper to sell, the result was all smashed in their hands, the concert venue that day was not full.

Sometimes the game between the singer and the performer will also determine the number of channel tickets. Ms. A introduced that when a singer performed on a "first tour", he directly posted money to the organizer, so the organizer agreed not to release channel tickets. During this year's "Three Tours", the singer's studio directly became the organizer of the concert, eliminating channel tickets from the source.

There are also singers who play games with the organizer through temporary over-performance. The logic behind it is that if the number of performances is added, the more fans buy tickets through formal channels, the channel tickets will not be sold at a price, but the results of this game are often not as expected. "The number of performances has increased, and the channel tickets have increased accordingly, the key depends on the communication between the singer and the organizer, and the two sides must have a good talk, mutual benefit rather than mutual dismantling." Ms. A said.

Scalpers who can't sell tickets don't necessarily suffer losses

Ms. A also explained a misunderstanding that has been circulating for many years. In the turmoil of scalpers grabbing tickets, there are often fans who accuse scalpers, such as the popular golden phrase "It is better to stand at the gate of the bird's nest than to let the scalper earn" in the Mayday fan vs. scalper. But the ticket can't be sold, and it's not necessarily the scalper who suffers. Ms. A explained that some scalpers who do overseas concerts will directly negotiate the price with the organizer, package a part of the channel tickets, and then price and sell them themselves.

However, in domestic concerts, everyone is passing on risks to each other, and scalpers generally only have a small number of cash tickets in their hands, and most of the tickets are temporarily matched from peers or superiors when they are purchased by the audience. In this case, if the ticket is sold too well, there is indeed a scalper who has just marked a price on the second-hand ticketing website, and only to find that the matching ticket price marked by the upper family is higher than his own, in this case, in order not to lose money, the scalper usually chooses to refund the audience; Once the ticket is not sold well, this kind of ticket may be directly smashed in the hands of the organizer, and there is no scalper to take over, in this case, the loss is still the organizer.

This year, the performance company is under a lot of pressure and needs to start working quickly to make money. At the same time, the price of singers, venue prices, and labor prices are also soaring, which has led to an overall increase in concert ticket prices, with many industry insiders estimating an increase of about 10% to 20%. In fact, considering the affordability of consumers and other issues, many leading singers have concert ticket prices similar to three years ago. Taking Jay Chou as an example, this year's highest price of 2000,2019 yuan seems very expensive, but the highest ticket price of his 2000 tour is also <>,<> yuan.

When the ticket price is barely or insufficient to cover the cost of the concert, the scalper ticket becomes a lever for the individual organizer. They withhold more channel tickets to achieve higher prices and maximize their profits.

(Beijing Youth Daily Article/Reporter Zu Weiwei, Intern, Dai Yihang, Hu Jie, Coordinator/Man Yi)