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INTERNATIONAL PROFILES

PRIMARY TICKETING A handful of ticketing operators prevail in Chile, including Puntoticket, Ticketek and Ticketpro. Of these, the market-leading Puntoticket has the advantage of an exclusive deal with Santiago’s 15,000-seat Movistar Arena, which represents the key stop for touring international acts. Puntoticket estimates that it holds 70% of the market. “Competition in Chile is growing fast, with a number of players offering an increasing range of solutions to the industry,” says Puntoticket CEO Raúl Rojas, who lists Bruno Mars, Ed Sheeran, Justin Bieber, U2 and Lollapalooza among recent clients. “We have kept our leadership by focusing on innovation, technology, and the highest level of customer service,” he adds. Puntoticket sells online, via phone, and through Ripley department stores and the Cinemark chain of cinemas. Ticketpro launched in Chile in 2009 with the aim of majoring in tech-savvy, young audiences, encouraged by Chile’s high rate of Internet and mobile penetration. It has a broad base, including music but also theatre, sport and family entertainment, and also sells through Hites homeware stores and the Sencillito network of offline cash exchanges. DISTRIBUTION OF SALES According to local promoter Carlos Geniso of DG Medios, promoters can expect to sell around 80% of their tickets online nowadays, with the remaining 20% going through retail outlets including major chain stores, cinemas and a dwindling band of record shops. Puntoticket puts its overall figure at around 70:30, and expects a growing mobile channel to further skew the balance towards online. “Technology is certainly impacting the industry, as consumers increasingly interact with us in a digital manner,” says Rojas. “The market is moving towards doing everything in a mobile and paperless way. We are adapting to it at the necessary pace. Ticket buyers also demand a technological solution able to correctly respond to picks of huge demand on ticket sales in any given moment, so we need to make sure we are ready to deliver when those picks come.” Print-at-home tickets have not taken off for cultural reasons, says Geniso, and home delivery is prevalent. Ticketpro has always pushed e-tickets and sold paperless tickets in large quantities for some of the matches at 2015’s Copa America. “In the future, technology will be on your wrist or in your watch or on your phone – that’s the way it is going,” says Geniso.

38 • INTERNATIONAL TICKETING YEARBOOK 2017

DG Medios promoted Slayer when they played at the Movistar Arena in Santiago in May 2017

VALUE OF MARKET There are no published estimates of the value of the Chilean live business. SECONDARY TICKETING Back in 2011, now-defunct social ticketing network Picket used Chile as a test market. These days, Viagogo is the most prominent secondary channel. INTERNATIONAL/DOMESTIC SPLITS AND GENRES The capital Santiago is by far the largest city in Chile, with a population of more than 7m in the greater Santiago area that dwarves any other centre in the country. The capital is overwhelmingly the main destination for international and regional acts, and has an appetite for the best of each. “Chile has become a good market for a wide range of styles,” says Rojas. “Some of the shows that have sold well lately or are selling well now include Bruno Mars, U2, Santiago Rock City, and also festivals like Lollapalooza.” CULTURAL ANALYSIS The Movistar Arena is the envy of virtually every nation on the continent. Meanwhile, in a continent of poor roads and inconceivably long distances, Santiago is easily routed from Buenos Aires, a two-hour flight or a lengthy but straightforward 1,500km drive away. TAXES AND CHARGES VAT in Chile is 19%. Service charges on tickets tend to stand at around 15% of face value.

ot the largest economy in South America, but the richest and sturdiest in terms of its GDP per head, long, thin Chile on the continent’s Atlantic coast has historically been the third in a touring triumvirate with Brazil and Argentina, its key city of Santiago routing easily with Argentina’s Cordoba and Buenos Aires. Even as the continent develops as a market, Chile remains a much-visited stop for both Latin and Englishlanguage artists.