Concert scalper tracking investigation -

Dialogue with Ticket Agent: "On-line" scalpers will also "pit" off-line

Yesterday, the A8 page of this newspaper published an unannounced interview on the chaos of the concert scalper. In the investigation, a reporter from Beijing Youth Daily found that there is also a "top-up and downline" relationship within the "scalper". In addition to earning ticket money, "on-line" scalpers also earn money from "downline" scalpers, and even "pit" downline. Ms. A, a low-level ticket agent, exposed some secrets inside the ticket agent "scalper" to reporters.

The expansion of "agency" upline development downline

Beijing Youth News: From which channel did you first learn about this gray industry? Is there anyone around you doing it?

A: People in my previous circle of friends did ticketing. For a while they were trying to recruit that agent.

Beiqing News: That's equivalent to you being their downline at that time, right? What are the main tasks of your work?

A: Right. The main thing is to drain and send a circle of friends, and then those who have orders will be reported online. I mainly communicate with the buyer, because I am now a bit of a lower level, so I don't need to communicate directly with a higher channel. My upline and he'll help me take care of it all.

I have two uplines. One of the channels is not so good, his activity is not so much. But on the other hand, he has more activities: from music festivals to concerts, including concerts in Hong Kong and Macau, concerts in Japan and South Korea, and even further afield in the United States.

The agency fee increased from 388 yuan to 888 yuan

Beijing Youth News: Do you need to pay agency fees? How much does it cost?

A: We need agency fees, which depends on how you collect them online. I was paying the agency fee to the upline in one lump sum. The agency fee for my first listing was 300. The second online his agency fee is 588. But the second online he went up. He was 388 at the end of last year. Then at the beginning of this year, when he started recruiting a lot of agents, it rose to 588, and now he has risen to 888.

Beiqing News: That means he is still rising? How much profit can you make for each order you do now?

A: This is also personal pricing, in fact, the price freedom of this line is very high, just like I told you just now that the agency fee has been rising, in fact, it is not the market conditions that cause it to rise. It was my own upline, his personal decision. Yes, he decided to raise it because he didn't want to charge too many "inferior agents".

At the beginning of the year, there were especially many small agents pouring into this industry. My upline energy is limited, and I don't want to bring too many downline, including some small agents who are not very reliable, he doesn't want to bring it, so he raises the threshold by raising the agency fee. The profit piece is actually his own pricing, and at the beginning he will actually tell us what kind of pricing range it is. I probably added $100 to $300 to the price range of the selling list.

Beiqing News: It is also determined according to the popularity of the performance, right?

A: Yes, his most basic logic is that the lower his price, the less he adds, and the higher the price, the more he adds up.

The water is really deep

Beiqing News: You just said that you seem to have been pitted, can you elaborate?

A: At the beginning, I didn't think so much, I thought it was relatively simple to send a circle of friends to drain traffic, and connect with customers. But after doing it, I found that the "water" here is indeed quite deep. The previous one that was considered to pit me online, he would sell fake peripheral and signed photos, which is actually very common. In addition, the most unbearable thing for me at that time was that he did not reply to messages in a timely manner, and the price update was not timely.

Beiqing News: "Price update" means that for example, he hangs this price here, and then when you ask him again, he will change it, right?

A: Right. In fact, more mature tickets, they recruit agents, will pull an agent group. His real-time quotes will be updated in the group in a timely manner. But my first online price is updated in the circle of friends, he will group the agent, and then send the circle of friends. After posting an event, he sends another price in the group, only the price visible to the agent. But his way of updating is quite untimely. Sometimes when you go to check with him, his price has changed, he responds slowly, and it is easy to lose customers. Especially at the beginning of the early stage, he made his downline very difficult to do.

Beijing Youth News: Will he give you any guarantees or promises?

A: He had a commitment at the beginning. They send a circle of friends to recruit agents, and when you ask him about the agent, he will send you some notes, and then like pictures, send you documents, there will be instructions. In fact, his guarantee is also a verbal guarantee, there is no actual guarantee, so it is to look at the character. He will verbally guarantee that he can train you, saying that he will take care of everything except for connecting with customers and sending WeChat. Then you don't need to advance funds, you don't need to take financial risks and so on, most of this is a guarantee.

Beiqing News: So what is the main content of the training you just mentioned?

A: It's also very personal, like I was the first to go online, and the training content he gave me was only three documents, adding up to 5000,<> words.

(Beijing Youth Daily / Reporter Zu Weiwei, Intern Dai Yihang)

Co-ordination/Man Yi

memory

There are basically no "scalpers" gathered around Beijing's key performance venues

From April to June, Beijing jointly carried out special rectification work to crack down on illegal ticket scalping by "scalpers" in the performance ticketing market, creating a good performance market environment for building a performing arts capital and polishing the cultural business card of "Watching Beijing".

In response to this chaos, from April to June, departments such as culture and tourism, internet information, public security, cultural law enforcement, and market supervision formed special classes to jointly carry out special rectification work, put forward eight governance measures, and clarified the corresponding responsible units.

In addition, for the hot repertoire performances of key performance venues such as the Capital Theater, focus on cracking down on acts that disrupt the order of the performance scene. Today, there are basically no "scalpers" gathering around key performance venues to scalping. After the return visit, many theater fans, theater fans and dance fans who love stage art have praised it. The special rectification work has achieved initial results.

The special rectification will continue until the end of June. In the future, multiple departments will continue the joint service and supervision model, and continue to carry out key crackdowns and joint rectification of illegal reselling of performance tickets for hot performances. In view of the difficulties in the governance of online second-hand trading platforms, multiple departments will increase the governance of their illegal sales activities. Focusing on strengthening the supervision of the ticketing market, promoting the implementation of performance ticketing services and technical specifications, enriching the supply of high-quality performances, and strengthening compliance education and training for ticket operators, the urban area and relevant departments have jointly made efforts to curb the phenomenon of illegal reselling of performance tickets, promote the healthy and prosperous development of the capital's performance market, and better meet the spiritual and cultural needs of the people.

(Beijing Youth Daily)