Not sure if this is a devil's advocate take or merely mentioning an actual business need:
I remember hearing that the average number of tickets sold per purchase on TicketMaster is four. The person in the talk that mentioned this then went on to say:
"This provides us with a problem when it comes to understanding exactly who our customers are. Sure, we know who the purchaser is because they have a login and a credit card etc.
But who are the other 3 people? Effectively, 75% of our customer base is unknown to us."
I certainly see the privacy aspect of scanning the face of EVERYONE who goes to a concert (even though everyone's faces are probably being scanned on public transport to get to the venue).
I can also potentially see another article on Hacker News talking about how to profile customers to your website to help A/B test for a better customer experience.
I don't see a business need here. The business of Ticketmaster is to sell tickets. As long as there is no fraud/scalping involved, they have no need to know who is going to be using them.
I can maybe grudgingly agree that the info on actual purchasers might be useful to design better site.. but you don't need to track your customers long term to see A/B test results. And the other people are clearly out of scope, since they don't actually use the website and thus do not care about it.
the dream of every ticket seller is to extract as much money as each ticket user is willing to pay. knowing who's getting tickets means more opportunities for differential pricing.
Concerts aren't like most other goods though. You have to be available on that date and the price needs to seem fair to you. Maybe you'd pay more for one concert vs another even if you can afford it either way. Maybe depending on the venue the cheap seats might not be that bad. All sorts of confounding variables are afoot even if you know joe shmoe likes Billy Eilish and makes 50k a year.
> This provides us with a problem when it comes to understanding exactly who our customers are. Sure, we know who the purchaser is because they have a login and a credit card etc.
While I agree with the overall HN sentiment that we shouldn’t be profiling customers with facial recognition I do wish we could discuss the business side of it too.
> "This provides us with a problem when it comes to understanding exactly who our customers are.
The other three people are "People who are interested in attending shows for the artist on the ticket" which is all they need to know. What gives them the right to know anything more than that? These are customers who are already giving them their money. They've already reached them. If they can't extract more money from those three fans by selling their personal data or by learning about what they eat for breakfast or who they sleep with, or whatever other data points they'd fill in by doxxing the audience too damn bad.
Am I supposed to feel sorry for TicketMaster after they've already ripped me off with their bullshit fees and prices? Whoever those three people are, they have paid Ticketmaster more than enough already.
This is excellent! I'm pleased to hear that artists are recognizing how terrible this sort of policy is, and are joining those of us who already boycott such venues.
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[ 3.7 ms ] story [ 37.9 ms ] threadI remember hearing that the average number of tickets sold per purchase on TicketMaster is four. The person in the talk that mentioned this then went on to say:
"This provides us with a problem when it comes to understanding exactly who our customers are. Sure, we know who the purchaser is because they have a login and a credit card etc.
But who are the other 3 people? Effectively, 75% of our customer base is unknown to us."
I certainly see the privacy aspect of scanning the face of EVERYONE who goes to a concert (even though everyone's faces are probably being scanned on public transport to get to the venue).
I can also potentially see another article on Hacker News talking about how to profile customers to your website to help A/B test for a better customer experience.
I can maybe grudgingly agree that the info on actual purchasers might be useful to design better site.. but you don't need to track your customers long term to see A/B test results. And the other people are clearly out of scope, since they don't actually use the website and thus do not care about it.
a huge invasion of privacy that should probably be illegal
> (even though everyone's faces are probably being scanned on public transport to get to the venue)
also a huge invasion of privacy that should probably be illegal
So?
They've been paid.
After all, this is a tech startup forum.
They don't need to know who their customers are.
I can't think of a single store that I go to that needs to know who I am.
It sounds like a solution in search of a problem.
Surveillance is why I no longer ride public transit.
The other three people are "People who are interested in attending shows for the artist on the ticket" which is all they need to know. What gives them the right to know anything more than that? These are customers who are already giving them their money. They've already reached them. If they can't extract more money from those three fans by selling their personal data or by learning about what they eat for breakfast or who they sleep with, or whatever other data points they'd fill in by doxxing the audience too damn bad.
Am I supposed to feel sorry for TicketMaster after they've already ripped me off with their bullshit fees and prices? Whoever those three people are, they have paid Ticketmaster more than enough already.