EXO concert ticket sales were trending over US-North Korea Summit
EXO’s recent concert ticket sales have made it to national news for trending over the 2018 North Korea–United States summit.
The news clip covered the issue of macro programs and how it is used in concert ticket sales, using EXO’s recent concert as an example.
At 8:00 sharp, EXO’s concert tickets went on sale but those who clicked on the reservation were faced with a “please wait” window due to the traffic.
Moments later, all seats were completely sold out.
Soon after, posts selling EXO’s concert tickets began showing up on other online transaction websites for anywhere between $630~$900, almost 10 times the original price.
Despite the 2018 North Korea–United States summit, EXO’s concert reservation website was on top of the real-time search list due to this reason.
Other posts on the online transaction website included $45 tickets for BTS’ fan meeting, which were selling for $1,170, approximately 20 times the original price.
As a result of the “illegal” use of these macro programs, actual consumers of the concert tickets were left to buy tickets at a significantly higher price than the original price.
“As soon as tickets begin selling, you can’t even get onto the server. Then for about one or two seconds, nothing pops up…and the tickets are usually sold out in around 3~5 minutes.” ㅡ Online Consumer
“I’m a bit upset about it. They buy the tickets when they don’t have any intention to attend.” ㅡ Online Consumer
“So we have no choice but to buy the tickets for 3 times or 5 times the amount.” ㅡ Online Consumer
Some people have even turned to using services that purchase the tickets for them, as it is still cheaper than buying the tickets from scalpers.
“If we prepay an agency, they’ll do it for us and it’s cheaper than buying tickets from scalpers.” ㅡ Online Consumer
These scalpers were apparently using a macro program that automatically selects the seats and inputs the information so that the user only needs to click the payment button at the end.
The companies selling the tickets were also apparently well aware of the situation, but could not find a suitable solution to counteract it.
“No matter how hard we try to develop the system, these people also develop new macro programs and advance their methods so…” ㅡ Interpark Affiliate
Regulations on the illegal purchase and resale of tickets through macro programs have been proposed, but are currently pending and have not yet been enforced.
