speaking as someone who literally worked on a bot mitigation project for Ticketmaster:
They have an effing HUGE tech problem.
The site crashing isn't because of "demand for the tickets" at least not by normal people's definition.
It's not that there's really "There is much more demand for these tickets than there are supply of tickets" as matai_kolila suggested here.
Ticketmaster's problem is very much that there are huge bot swarms attacking it for every popular ticket sale, because reselling tickets is WAY more profitable, than pointing a few thousand bots at it for a few hours.
Anyone who's tried to order tickets from ticketmaster in the past decade knows that it's a massive pain in the ass of hurdle jumping. That hurdle jumping has nothing to do with the humans attempting to buy tickets. It's bot mitigation.
It is not in ticketmaster's interest to facilitate scalping.
1. they don't profit from it. (no $)
2. humans blame them for it. (bad pr)
3. artists blame them for it (potential loss of $)
now, they've got a bunch of stadiums lock in to literal hundred year contracts so, to some degree they're safe financially as far as big performances go because those artists can't go anywhere _other_ than the stadiums they have locked down. Practically speaking Taylor Swift can't perform at your local bar and announce it. A) there'd be a mob. B) it wouldn't be profitable enough for anything other than just testing out songs.
> Why was Ticketmaster’s system so poorly structured?
I can't say that it is or is not poorly structured. I can say, that regardless of how good of a job Ticketmaster's devs do, they are fighting an unwinnable war. All they can do is gain and loose a little ground against the bot makers every round.
This post was obviously written by someone with no clue of the existence, or significance, of the technological warfare Ticketmaster is constantly involved it.
To be clear, I am, in no way, commenting on the practices of the company, or their business decisions.
I am ONLY saying that they have a HUGE tech problem and when the site goes down or is otherwise effed, it is a _very_ safe bet, that it has nothing to do with the humans trying to buy tickets.
They have an effing HUGE tech problem.
The site crashing isn't because of "demand for the tickets" at least not by normal people's definition.
It's not that there's really "There is much more demand for these tickets than there are supply of tickets" as matai_kolila suggested here.
Ticketmaster's problem is very much that there are huge bot swarms attacking it for every popular ticket sale, because reselling tickets is WAY more profitable, than pointing a few thousand bots at it for a few hours.
Anyone who's tried to order tickets from ticketmaster in the past decade knows that it's a massive pain in the ass of hurdle jumping. That hurdle jumping has nothing to do with the humans attempting to buy tickets. It's bot mitigation.
It is not in ticketmaster's interest to facilitate scalping.
1. they don't profit from it. (no $) 2. humans blame them for it. (bad pr) 3. artists blame them for it (potential loss of $)
now, they've got a bunch of stadiums lock in to literal hundred year contracts so, to some degree they're safe financially as far as big performances go because those artists can't go anywhere _other_ than the stadiums they have locked down. Practically speaking Taylor Swift can't perform at your local bar and announce it. A) there'd be a mob. B) it wouldn't be profitable enough for anything other than just testing out songs.
> Why was Ticketmaster’s system so poorly structured?
I can't say that it is or is not poorly structured. I can say, that regardless of how good of a job Ticketmaster's devs do, they are fighting an unwinnable war. All they can do is gain and loose a little ground against the bot makers every round.
This post was obviously written by someone with no clue of the existence, or significance, of the technological warfare Ticketmaster is constantly involved it.
To be clear, I am, in no way, commenting on the practices of the company, or their business decisions.
I am ONLY saying that they have a HUGE tech problem and when the site goes down or is otherwise effed, it is a _very_ safe bet, that it has nothing to do with the humans trying to buy tickets.