Touts Out! How Twickets is changing the landscape of ticket resale
As Twickets’ growth smashes 1.5 million visitors in 2022 and gross revenues soar by 140% compared to pre-covid, it is no surprise that popular Stockport-based band, Blossoms, has joined Twickets’ already prominent list of partners, including George Ezra, Ed Sheeran, and Adele.
The ticket resale revolution began in 2011 on Twitter as “@Twickets” by London-based web designer and music fan, Richard Davies, to combat empty seats in “sold out” gigs. Just over a decade later and Twickets has evolved into a formidable business that has changed how we do ticket resale.
Pre-2011 saw music-lovers, theatre-enthusiasts and sport-goers ripped off by resale prices in the secondary ticket market. The resale industry was unsympathetic to fans that cancelled their plans due to unforeseen circumstances but did not want their ticket going to waste.
It meant empty seats in shows that were supposedly “sold out”. However, this left a gap in the market for an ethical fan-to-fan ticket resale service, and Mr Davies delivered.
Initially using twitter to connect fans, his idea was to resell tickets at face value or less; within two years, Twickets resold 45,000 spare tickets.
A movement had begun and was quickly gathering momentum. With the introduction of an easy to navigate website, locating events became simpler; be it sport, music, or theatre and arts, the internal search engine allows the user to find specific events by name, date, and location.
With the added features of a Live Ticket Stream and allowing users to set up alerts that ping straight to their phone, Twickets continued to grow and new partnerships forged with influential artists and companies like Spice Girls and Gigs and Tours.
Twickets has forced a change in the industry despite rivals adopting similar models like a dynamic pricing program. Twickets still remain the only service that can resell any ticket to any event, anywhere.
Fan-to-fan interaction is encouraged through Twitter with prompts for friendly, nostalgic conversation while updating them on the latest available tickets or to draw attention to those pesky touts.
Their frequent informative blog keeps the fans in the know with current developments and new partnerships and has resulted in Twickets seeing over 300k tickets listed in Q2 this year.
The “Events Near You” feature - available on their app and website - promotes last-minute tickets in the user’s immediate vicinity. Also, the buyer can “Make an Offer” on the original selling price, preventing tickets from going to waste.
Twickets reached three million new users in 2019 and ticketed over 25,000 events, with over 60% of their transactions made within the last week before a show takes place.
Since 2019 the app has been downloaded over 100k times while transactions have risen by 30%.
With the international market looking for resale reform, Twickets, having doubled its revenue in international territories - particularly in mainland Europe - is looking to expand into Germany and France. Change is happening. Twickets is showing it can be done by putting fans and artists first.
What are your thoughts? Have you had a bad experience with ticket resale? Tell your story in the comments below.
