mandag 22. mars 2010

DEMO: TicketPlayground lets you buy second-hand tickets at the last minute — for cheaper

TicketPlayground is one of 65 companies chosen by VentureBeat to launch at the DEMO Spring 2010 event taking place this week. These companies do pay a fee to present, but our coverage of them remains objective.

At first glance, the event-ticket reseller market seems saturated. You have companies like RazorGator, Viagogo, Seatwave and more all vying for the same customers. But TicketPlayground, a new secondary market for tickets launching at the DEMO conference, hopes to distinguish itself by letting users snag tickets at the very last minute, and for less money too.
Most ticket sites for regular people to buy and sell passes don’t allow people to buy within 72 hours of the event in question. They also usually charge a 15 percent fee to both the ticket seller and buyer. TicketPlayground, on the other hand, only plans to charge 10 percent, and lets you buy within 24 hours of the event you want to attend, whether it be a football game, pop concert, or symphony performance.
Also separating it from the pack, the company is adding social networking features into the mix, hoping to foster a regular community of buyers and sellers that come back to the site again and again. Users will be able to blog about the events they attend, chat with other users in real time, and post pictures from the shows and games they go to for others to see.
Taking advantage of viral marketing, the company is also offering a widget that people can put on their personal sites, blogs or profiles, to funnel traffic back to the TicketPlayground site.
“We want to combine a marketplace with social applications, where people can buy or sell their tickets, and come onto the site and chat about what’s coming up and what they’ve done,” said CEO Todd Chitoff.
TicketPlayground has already created mobile applications for the iPhone and BlackBerry. App users will be able to receive text alerts about upcoming events and pre-sales.
Within a year, the company plans to be in every major metropolitan market in the U.S. At the same time, it is looking to forge alliances with at least one large network, web site or media company that can help co-market TicketPlayground and expand its reach. Team or sports sites could present an ideal opportunity to make this happen, Chitoff says.
Right now, the Plantation, Fla. company has some seed and angel funding, but will look for more probably within the year.
Tags: DemoBeat, DEMOSpring10
Companies: TicketPlayground
People: Todd Chitoff

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