earlier this year. “Tao Piao Piao has become one of the leading online movie-ticketing platforms in China. It offers online ticketing and seat selection services in more than 5,000 theatres nationwide, covering 95% of the country’s total box office,” says a spokesman for the company. Detailing its transition into the larger ticketing world, he further explains, “Tao Piao Piao has become an integral part of the company’s online promotion and distribution business, as well as a key consumer platform for film entertainment." But Alibaba’s ambitions are bigger than just TV and film, as Tao Piao Piao recently announced a strategic partnership with Damai.cn, China’s largest entertainment-ticketing service provider. “Tao Piao Piao and Damai.cn will make their ticketing service platforms interoperable for users to purchase tickets on Damai.cn directly via Alipay and the latest Tao Piao Piao mobile applications,” notes the company official. As a market leader in China, Damai. cn boasts operations in 301 cities worldwide, offering ticketing for over 290,000 popular shows and major sports events, and over 5,000 venues and performers. “Looking ahead, Tao Piao Piao and Damai.cn will also collaborate on the marketing of quality film and TV entertainment projects,” continues the company’s spokesman. “Tao Piao Piao will continue to work with different partners to connect to new channels, so as to cover the largest group of fans and create joint marketing opportunities for merchants.” Such activity will not have gone unnoticed by China’s other Internet powerhouses, such as Baidu, Tencent and Dalian Wanda, and with huge financial arsenals to tap into, it would not be too surprising if those companies found a bit of loose change to make some strategic acquisitions, particularly in the United States, where Alibaba is listed on the New York stock exchange. The company’s corporate compatriots are reportedly already harbouring similar listing ambitions.
ORIENT EXPRESS Chambers is impressed. “The likes of Alibaba and Dalian Wanda don’t mess
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Now in its 17th year in London's West End, The Lion King continues to deliver sales success to a myriad of ticketing operations
around – they’re busy buying into film studios, cinema chains, theme parks and even Korean concert promoters. They are building different kinds of vertical businesses compared to a company like Live Nation,” he observes. “With the new tech giants, you cannot assume that the current business structures are fixed. The market evolves and these corporations are very quick to evolve with them – or to drive that evolution. “If you look at Live Nation Entertainment, for example, it was born by aggregation as SFX, which was then acquired by Clear Channel – so it was effectively part of a company that owned radio stations and advertising billboards. Live Nation was then spun off and it then sold off its motor sports business to Feld, and its performing arts division to Key Brands and ATG. Then it merged with Ticketmaster, so it’s a very young company that’s evolving and finding its corporate shape. And who knows, maybe the next step is a merger with another media or tech-oriented business?!” Those business verticals are what separate the online powerhouses from the pure ticketing enterprises that they are beginning to devour. “Ticketing is
not sexy – it’s a thankless task – but it underpins the whole live music experience,” states Chambers. “Facebook, for example, is not (yet) interested in its own ticketing operation, but it does want to be involved in people getting ready for their night out, chatting about their clothes, inviting friends, and taking selfies, right through to being at the event and the aftermath. That ‘ journey from anticipation to participation’ is hugely enticing to companies like Facebook.” But are such devastatingly wealthy global operations seen as a threat to the ticketing business? “New tech companies are, currently at best, good event partners or owners. And they have deep enough pockets to sponsor tours, venues or promoters,” Chambers continues. “Apple, with its foreign cash reserves, could buy Live Nation, UMG, William Morris, IMG – the whole lot, and still hardly make a dent into their finances. But arguably, Apple wants to be all about access to the experience not necessarily responsible for the organisation and hard grunt work that goes into staging, power, PA, lighting, security, toilets, trakway, and licensing. Online tech companies are typically more about the sizzle.”