Ticketfly was a
ticket
Ticket or tickets may refer to:
Slips of paper
* Lottery ticket
* Parking ticket, a ticket confirming that the parking fee was paid (and the time of the parking start)
* Toll ticket, a slip of paper used to indicate where vehicles entered a to ...
distribution service started in 2008 in
San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...
,
California
California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the ...
. Andrew Dreskin,
CEO
A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especiall ...
of Ticketfly, previously co-founded the company Ticketweb, which is now owned by
Ticketmaster
Ticketmaster Entertainment, Inc. is an American ticket sales and distribution company based in Beverly Hills, California with operations in many countries around the world. In 2010, it merged with Live Nation under the name Live Nation Enterta ...
. Ticketfly grossed $500 million in 2013, processing 11.2 million tickets for more than 80,000 events across
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tota ...
and the United States.
After raising $37 million from investors such as
Sapphire Ventures
Sapphire Ventures (stylized as SAPPHIRE) is a venture capital firm with offices in Menlo Park, San Francisco, Austin, and London. The firm is considered one of the world's premier venture capital firms.
The firm primarily invests in Series B t ...
(formerly SAP Ventures), Mohr Davidow Ventures, and High Peaks Venture Partners, Ticketfly competed against Ticketmaster with cheaper tickets and
social media
Social media are interactive media technologies that facilitate the creation and sharing of information, ideas, interests, and other forms of expression through virtual communities and networks. While challenges to the definition of ''social me ...
capabilities for promoters. In 2012, they managed ticket distribution for 360 venues across the country and tripled that number in three years to more than 1,100 venues by 2015.
On October 7, 2015, Ticketfly announced its acquisition by music streaming service
Pandora
In Greek mythology, Pandora (Greek: , derived from , ''pān'', i.e. "all" and , ''dōron'', i.e. "gift", thus "the all-endowed", "all-gifted" or "all-giving") was the first human woman created by Hephaestus on the instructions of Zeus. As Hes ...
in a $450 million cash and stock deal
to complement the company's core streaming product. CEO Brian McAndrews explained that it would leverage Ticketfly and Pandora's "engaged" user base to "thrill music lovers and lift ticket sales for artists as the most effective marketplace for connecting music makers and fans."
On June 9, 2017, Pandora sold Ticketfly to its largest competitor,
Eventbrite
Eventbrite is an American event management and ticketing website. The service allows users to browse, create, and promote local events. The service charges a fee to event organizers in exchange for online ticketing services, unless the event is f ...
, for $200 million.
On May 31, 2018, Ticketfly confirmed that its services were the subject of a major security breach that compromised "some client and customer information", and that the site had been taken offline as a precaution to investigate. The site briefly contained a message by "IsHaKdZ" which claimed responsibility for the hack, and threatened to release an internal database used by the site's back-end for event organizers. In early June 2018, Ticketfly said that the breach included 26 million users, and included data about their names, addresses, and phone numbers.
In November 2018, it was announced that Ticketfly would be shut down, with music-oriented features to be merged into
Eventbrite
Eventbrite is an American event management and ticketing website. The service allows users to browse, create, and promote local events. The service charges a fee to event organizers in exchange for online ticketing services, unless the event is f ...
.
References
2008 establishments in California
2015 mergers and acquisitions
American companies established in 2008
Companies based in San Francisco
Online retailers of the United States
Ticket sales companies
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