The regulation of the purchase and sale of second-hand tickets in Spain has not yet been adapted to the Internet, which leads to tickets being sold at exorbitant prices and to the risk of fraud. In order to connect a user who wants to sell his ticket without speculating with another with an interest in attending the same show, especially if it is all sold out, TicketSwap was founded in 2012, a Dutch website that also operates in Spain with the aim of becoming the first platform for resale of electronic tickets based on the “efficiency, honesty, transparency and reliability” of the service, explains from Amsterdam the head of Market Development for Spain, Silvia Rodriguez.
TicketSwap “is not a simple intermediary, nor does it buy primary tickets directly; promoters and artists do not pass inventory to us. We are against speculation and we fight against fraudulent resale. We want to turn the world of second-hand tickets into a safe market “, He says. Thus, e-tickets will never be found on this platform before they are available in the primary market.
In addition to concerts, tickets can be sold for any type of show, such as festivals -Primavera Sound and Sonar, for example-, musicals, theater, sporting events such as soccer matches and any other with electronic tickets available.
The system is simple, as explained by Hans Ober, one of its founders: the seller logs in through his Facebook account, offers an electronic ticket by uploading it to the TicketSwap website and establishes a sale price not higher than 120% of the value original. Both the system, automatically, and the platform’s customer service team carry out “all kinds of checks” of the entry and the seller. Through the Facebook profile, those interested in the ticket can decide if the seller is reliable and know if he has sold before on TicketSwap. Buyers pay their ticket online and the seller receives a message announcing the sale. When TicketSwap receives the money, it transfers it to the seller the next business day. The company applies a 5% service fee to each party.
TicketSwap has partnered with other international ticketing platforms, such as Paylogic and Eventix, and event organizers -Sziget Festival, DGTL Festival- to offer the Secure Swap service, whereby the ticket sold is invalidated and the buyer receives another 100% valid, new and unique.
The platform, with an app for iOS and Android, works in total in ten European countries and is in full expansion. Sum more than 1,200,000 registered users.
