Pandora Acquires TicketFly for $450M • Hacker News Board

Re: Pandora Acquires TicketFly for $450M

#11

Post by sleet » Wed, Oct 07, 2015, 8:43 PM UTC

mcintyre1994 wrote: post #5

> The Pandora app is the single most-used mobile app in the world Can this possibly be true? More used than Apple/Google/Spotify music apps maybe, but Facebook? Google search seems hard to believe too? I mean 80m users, "many on their phone" when Facebook have put up 1b users in the same day and I'm pretty sure surpassed 50%+ mobile usage?

Perhaps they define usage based on time?

It seems reasonable that users would spend 1b/80m = 13 times the amount of time listening to music than they do interacting with Facebook.

Re: Pandora Acquires TicketFly for $450M

#12

Post by 6stringmerc » Wed, Oct 07, 2015, 8:45 PM UTC

kapkapkap wrote: post #3

Seems odd that ticketmaster would not have have been willing to purchase them for more than that (unless of course ticketfly didn't want to go that route, and was leaving money on the table).

Maybe that relationship would've been seen as anti-competitive? As in, lots of scrutiny / regulatory hoops. Just a thought.

Re: Pandora Acquires TicketFly for $450M

#13

Post by cmurf » Wed, Oct 07, 2015, 8:47 PM UTC

If they can destroy Ticketmaster I'll be happy.

Edit: And StubHub for that matter.

Re: Pandora Acquires TicketFly for $450M

#14

Post by jandrese » Wed, Oct 07, 2015, 8:53 PM UTC

cmurf wrote: post #13

If they can destroy Ticketmaster I'll be happy. Edit: And StubHub for that matter.

I find it amazing that nobody can seem to outcompete Ticketmaster. It can't really take $15 per ticket to serve up 5 webpages. Are the costs of entry really that high? It doesn't seem like selling tickets should be that hard. How can a simple middleman maintain such a massive profit margin for so long?

Re: Pandora Acquires TicketFly for $450M

#15

Post by thenipper » Wed, Oct 07, 2015, 8:54 PM UTC

jandrese wrote: post #14

cmurf wrote: post #13

If they can destroy Ticketmaster I'll be happy. Edit: And StubHub for that matter.

I find it amazing that nobody can seem to outcompete Ticketmaster. It can't really take $15 per ticket to serve up 5 webpages. Are the costs of entry really that high? It doesn't seem like selling tickets should be that hard. How can a simple middleman maintain such a massive profit margin for so long?

Exclusive contracts? Owning the venues?

Re: Pandora Acquires TicketFly for $450M

#16

Post by bmm6o » Wed, Oct 07, 2015, 8:54 PM UTC

Ars coverage of the story: http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2015/10/pandor...

Re: Pandora Acquires TicketFly for $450M

#17

Post by odiroot » Wed, Oct 07, 2015, 8:56 PM UTC

mcintyre1994 wrote: post #5

> The Pandora app is the single most-used mobile app in the world Can this possibly be true? More used than Apple/Google/Spotify music apps maybe, but Facebook? Google search seems hard to believe too? I mean 80m users, "many on their phone" when Facebook have put up 1b users in the same day and I'm pretty sure surpassed 50%+ mobile usage?

I would actually guess Spotify is even more popular. Pandora is AFAIR not even in Europe.

Re: Pandora Acquires TicketFly for $450M

#18

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Oct 07, 2015, 8:57 PM UTC

jandrese wrote: post #14

cmurf wrote: post #13

If they can destroy Ticketmaster I'll be happy. Edit: And StubHub for that matter.

I find it amazing that nobody can seem to outcompete Ticketmaster. It can't really take $15 per ticket to serve up 5 webpages. Are the costs of entry really that high? It doesn't seem like selling tickets should be that hard. How can a simple middleman maintain such a massive profit margin for so long?

[deleted]

Re: Pandora Acquires TicketFly for $450M

#19

Post by mmanfrin » Wed, Oct 07, 2015, 8:58 PM UTC

mcintyre1994 wrote: post #5

> The Pandora app is the single most-used mobile app in the world Can this possibly be true? More used than Apple/Google/Spotify music apps maybe, but Facebook? Google search seems hard to believe too? I mean 80m users, "many on their phone" when Facebook have put up 1b users in the same day and I'm pretty sure surpassed 50%+ mobile usage?

In addition to others suggesting by total time, I'd add that they are in a lot of embedded devices: cars, tvs, even receivers.

Re: Pandora Acquires TicketFly for $450M

#20

Post by cmurf » Wed, Oct 07, 2015, 9:00 PM UTC

jandrese wrote: post #14

cmurf wrote: post #13

If they can destroy Ticketmaster I'll be happy. Edit: And StubHub for that matter.

I find it amazing that nobody can seem to outcompete Ticketmaster. It can't really take $15 per ticket to serve up 5 webpages. Are the costs of entry really that high? It doesn't seem like selling tickets should be that hard. How can a simple middleman maintain such a massive profit margin for so long?

They are actually Live Nation which before the merger was a spin off from Clear Channel. So they have all kinds of legacy venue usage rights and exclusive contracts. It's so incredibly blatantly anti-competitive and yet the merger was allowed: Google, Microsoft, Intel, piles of companies were against the merger.

So it's not amazing at all. And then it's perfect for many entertainers because they can use Ticketmaster as a scapegoat for such high ticket prices and exclusivity.