Ticketmaster has confirmed that it will begin selling gig and events tickets directly on Facebook by the end of April, reports BuzzFeed. The partnership between the online retailer and social network will extend to the latter’s Messenger service, where users will be able to receive images of their tickets upon request via Facebook’s experimental digital assistant, M.
T-Mobile Offer: Buy the LG G5 and get a free battery and cradle bundle
Initially, the deal will see a limited number of selected events available as a buy-on-Facebook option. If the preliminary phase goes according to plan, expansion would be all but certain.
“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,” Dan Armstrong, VP and GM of distributed commerce at Ticketmaster, told BuzzFeed News in an interview.
The move sees Ticketmaster join the likes of Uber, KLM, and Lyft, all of which are hoping their integration with Facebook will allow them to tap into its user base of 1.6 billion potential customers.
Although the financial terms of the deal remain undisclosed, Ticketmaster has revealed that Facebook will receive a standard affiliate fee from each purchase made through its platform. Additionally, Ticketmaster transactions that occur on Facebook will still have to be “claimed” via the e-retailer’s website or app.
Facebook will be discussing its Messenger business strategy, which it is fiercely expanding with the introduction of chat bots and Live Chat tools, at its F8 developer conference in San Francisco on Tuesday and Wednesday.
The social network has previously tested limited concert ticket sales, teaming up with local venues, artists, and event promoters in the San Francisco Bay Area toward the end of last year.
