????由于它們規模很大，也許這并不要緊。Ticketmaster在2012年的收入達到了13.7億美元。StubHub并沒有公布收入數據，不過它有1,300名員工，每天可以給游客賣出800萬張票。很多人認為StubHub規模要比Ticketmaster更大，即使他們經營的是二級市場。

????紐約的研究生安德魯?格洛普常常得把自己家的洋基棒球隊的季票轉賣給別人。他認為StubHub是這個市場里最強大的玩家。他說：“他們歷來都十分可靠。其他售票網站乍看一眼就顯得有些可疑，讓我不敢放心使用。”他自己想要買票時則會選擇Ticketmaster。當然，他說，兩家的“要價都令人討厭”——但是用這筆錢買來令人放心的交易流程和大量受眾還是劃算的。“賣家需要把票放在能吸引最多眼球的地方。放在StubHub上，你就知道它們肯定能賣掉。”

????挑戰者們知道他們無法在規模上擊敗現有的巨頭，所以他們正學著提供售票以外的服務。Ticketfly就把自己不僅定位成一個票務網站，還是一個支持場館的所有網絡呈現的技術引擎。這家公司給推銷商使用的客戶關系管理工具Fanbase可以顯示出所有購買場館或樂隊門票的顧客清單，上面提供了一系列詳細資料：顧客是否在社交媒體上分享了他的這次購買行為，是否把票轉賣給了別人，甚至他們什么時候到達演唱會現場。德雷斯金表示，這個工具能讓場館“識別、獎勵那些老顧客。” FanFueled是另一個主要的市場，通過向使用社交媒體宣傳某項活動的顧客發放一些現金和獎勵，帶來“影響力上的回報”。

????TickPick力圖從更低的費用上與StubHub拉開差距（賣家須交10%的手續費。在StubHub，賣家須交15%手續費，買家須交10%手續費），同時對同一時段的不同席位給出不同的價格。TickPick公司還為這項技術申請了專利。戈德博格說：“你是賣家，你在StubHub上掛了一張票，售價100美元。但我是買家，我想‘我就愿花80美元，’但你沒有渠道來得知我的意見。”賣家也可以設定截止日期，來一次公開拍賣。

????對一些后起之秀而言，他們更多地把大型票務公司看作朋友，而不是對手。杰克?格羅青格的免費票務索引SeatGeek就像票務業的Kayak（旅游搜索引擎服務商）或Priceline（旅游服務網站）。它集合了許多合作伙伴的票務信息——從StubHub到不那么著名的次級銷售商如Razorgator。用戶可用它查詢特定活動的所有可以購買的票。每家合作伙伴都需要為在SeatGeek中得到推薦而支付一點費用。

????這些公司是否蠶食了現有巨頭的市場份額呢？是的，但并不明顯。Ticketfly籌集了3,700萬美元的資金，有105名員工，將于2013年完成2,500萬美元的銷售額。它的移動端銷量自2012年1月以來已經增加了100%，占到了公司整體銷量的20%，這個數值是Ticketmaster 10%的兩倍。而TickPick的營業額達到了去年的10倍，不過它每月的交易額依然不足100萬美元，今年10月僅售出5,000張票。對比之下，SeatGeek每月交易額達到600萬美元，10月份售出了5.2萬張票。

????一些人認為，在不久的未來，分散的市場將會被整合。戈德伯格說：“我認為初級市場和二級市場的網站可能會進行大規模整合。許多人已經把Ticketmaster和StubHub看作一樣的了——他們不知道其中的差別。這是一個很嚴重的問題。”

????他說得有道理。Ticketmaster已經在它2008年以2,650萬美元收購的黃牛網站TicketsNow上開展轉售業務。它還擁有NBA（全美籃球協會）、NFL（全美橄欖球聯盟）和NHL（北美冰球聯盟）的球票交換業務。然而，Ticketmaster最大的競爭對手不是前面提到的任何一家公司，而是AEG（安舒茨娛樂集團）。后者擁有斯臺普斯中心，一直以來都在為其他網站提供白色標簽技術。不過這家公司開始計劃使用一個預購的彩票系統Fair AXS，發展面向顧客的業務。此外還有其他對手：MLB Advanced Media旗下主打初級票務市場的大型網站Tickets.com。

????最后，StubHub的品牌總監邁克爾?拉緹戈承認：“粉絲想要進場看他們喜歡的樂隊的演出，票是從初級市場購買的還是二級市場購買其實并不重要。”這意味著市場“絕對有可能”進行整合——這一點對小公司而言至關重要，他們要搶在大公司醒悟過來、開始創新并模仿（或者收購）他們之前就率先吸引到顧客。（StubHub公司2011年便收購了能夠列出各項活動的網站Zvents。）而大公司也隨時都可能自己創新，比如StubHub就希望展示自己的ShowDrift移動應用。這款運用可以掃描用戶的音樂庫，并在用戶最喜歡的演出來到他們的所在地時通知他們。

????拉緹戈說：“我們一直在關注競爭的態勢。”畢竟，沒有人想在搶飯碗的競爭中落后。（財富中文網）

????譯者：嚴匡正??????????????????

????Given their largeness, it may not matter. Ticketmaster brought in $1.37 billion in revenue in 2012. StubHub does not share revenue, but has 1,300 employees and 8 million daily visitors; it is widely considered to be larger than Ticketmaster, even though it sells in the secondary market.

????Andrew Group, a graduate student in New York, is often tasked with reselling his family's season tickets to the Yankees. He considers StubHub to be "the king of the game," he says. "It has a track record of reliability. One thing I've noticed with a lot of other sites that makes me wary of using them is that their websites just look shady." When he wants to buy tickets, he uses Ticketmaster. Sure, "the fees suck" for both, he says -- but they are a small price to pay for confidence in the transaction and a large audience. "As a seller, you need to put your tickets on the place that has the most eyeballs. With StubHub, you know they're going to sell."

????Challengers know they can't win against the incumbents on scale, so they are learning to offer more than tickets to thrive. Ticketfly markets itself as not just a ticketing site but a tech engine that powers all parts of a venue's web presence. Fanbase, the company's customer relations management tool for promoters, shows a listing of every individual that has purchased a ticket to a venue or band, offering details such as whether the person shared their purchase on social media, whether they resold their ticket, and even what time they showed up for the concert. The granularity allows venues "to identify and reward mavens," Dreskin says. FanFueled, another primary marketplace, offers "return on influence" by doling out cash and rewards to customers who use social media to promote an event.

????TickPick seeks to differentiate itself from StubHub with lower fees (10% for seller, vs. StubHub's 15% for seller and 10% for buyer) and the ability to bid different prices on different seats at the same time, technology for which it has filed a patent. "You're the seller, and you list a ticket for sale on StubHub at $100," Goldberg says. "But I'm the buyer, and I'm thinking, 'I'd pay $80,' but there's no way for you to hear me." You can also set an expiration date for an open bid.

????For some upstarts, the big ticketing companies are treated as more friend than foe. Jack Groetzinger's free ticket index SeatGeek is like a Kayak or Priceline for tickets, scouring a number of partner sources -- from StubHub to lesser-known secondary sellers like Razorgator -- for all available tickets to a given event. Each partner kicks a small fee to SeatGeek for the referral.

????Are any of these companies making a dent in the incumbents' market share? Yes, but not a large one. Ticketfly, which has raised $37 million in funding and has 105 employees, will do $250 million in sales for 2013. Its mobile sales are up 100% since January 2012, and its percent of sales from mobile devices is double that of Ticketmaster: 20% to 10. As for TickPick, the upstart has grown 1,000% in the past year, but it clears less than $1 million each month in transactions and sold only 5,000 tickets in October. To compare, SeatGeek manages $6 million per month and sold 52,000 tickets in October.

????Some believe that the fragmentation of the market suggests consolidation down the road. "I see a potential big merging of the primary and secondary sites," Goldberg says. "A lot of the general public already sees Ticketmaster and StubHub as the same -- they don't know the difference. That's a big problem right there."

????He has a point. Ticketmaster already does some reselling through scalper site TicketsNow, which it bought for $265 million in 2008; it also owns "ticket exchanges" for the NBA, NFL, and NHL. And yet the company's biggest rival is not any of the companies mentioned, but rather AEG. That company, which owns the Staples Center, has traditionally provided white label technology used by other sites but plans to grow a consumer-facing business with Fair AXS, an advance-purchase lottery system. And still there are more: Tickets.com, another big primary, is owned by MLB Advanced Media.

????At the end of the day, "fans want to get in to see the bands they love," StubHub brand director Michael Lattig acknowledges. "Whether that's through a primary or secondary, I think at this point they're comfortable either way." Which means "there's definitely the potential" for consolidation -- making it all the more crucial for the smaller companies to attract customers before the larger companies wise up to their innovations and copy them. (Or buy them, as StubHub did in 2011 when it acquired events-listing site Zvents.) And there's always the risk of homegrown innovation from the larger company, as StubHub hopes to demonstrate with its ShowDrift mobile app, which scans a person's music library to notify them when favorite acts come to town.

????"We're always watching to see what the competition is doing," Lattig says. After all, no one wants to throw second in a food fight.