Asia’s booming live entertainment industry has recently been plagued by a growing problem of ticket scalping. The term refers to the act of purchasing live event tickets in bulk by individuals, often through the use of automation (aka bots), to later resell them at exorbitant prices.
The issue isn’t isolated to Asia alone, as data from the 2023 Bad Bot Report revealed that 83.4% of all traffic to entertainment websites globally in 2022 came from automation (good and bad). Worringly, nearly one-third of all automation that hits entertainment sites is classified as advanced bad bots – a highly sophisticated type of bots that utilize the latest techniques to evade detection.
In this blog, we will cover the negative consequences of ticket scalping on consumers and businesses, its history, why it has increased in popularity recently, and how to best combat it.
Unmasking the Impact of Ticket Scalping
Ticket scalping has a detrimental impact on consumers, businesses, and the live entertainment industry as a whole.
The Business Perspective: Lost Revenue and Damaged Reputation
For businesses, scalping leads to lost revenue, as genuine customers are unable to purchase items at their original price. This, in turn, damages the brand reputation and customer loyalty as well as contributes to a negative perception of the industry.
The Consumer’s Dilemma: Inflated Prices and Limited Access
For consumers, scalping results in inflated prices and limited access to desired events, creating frustration and potential mistrust in the market. Scalpers’ unfair access to tickets through automation results in inflated ticket prices, making it difficult for them to attend events they are passionate about. This leaves genuine fans with limited options, contributing to frustration and disappointment.
Tracing the Evolution of Ticket Scalping
Ticket scalping has been around for as long as tickets for live shows were being sold when individuals would buy tickets in bulk and resell them at a higher price.
The Transformation of Scalping Techniques
As the technology evolved, so did scalping techniques. Today, scalpers heavily rely on advanced bots to execute their nefarious activities. According to the Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP), scalping is defined as the “acquisition of goods or services using the application in a manner that a normal user would be unable to undertake manually.”
Scalping in the Digital Age
Scalping has long been one of the most common bad bot problems, targeting almost any type of goods with high demand and low supply. From concert and sports tickets to highly coveted sneaker releases and limited quantity collector’s items. Scalping has evolved and advanced over time, targeting not only traditional items like event tickets, sneakers, and limited edition products but also expanding to new markets during the COVID-19 pandemic. With the cancellation of live events and the surge in online transactions, scalpers shifted their focus to commodities such as face masks, sanitizers, and home workout equipment. As the pandemic progressed, new opportunities emerged as a result of the chip shortage. Scalpers aggressively targeted the gaming hardware market, hoarding graphics cards (GPUs) and gaming consoles like the PlayStation 5 to later resell them at sky-high prices.
A Surge In Demand and Legal Measures Against Scalping
While ticket scalping is not a new phenomenon, the soaring demand for concert tickets worldwide in the past year as COVID-19 restrictions eased, sparked increased interest from scalpers.
The Impact on Asia’s Live Entertainment Industry
The negative impact of ticket scalping in Asia specifically is significant, as it appears to affect the region’s live entertainment and sports industries throughout multiple countries in the region. In Indonesia, for instance, the concert industry has been severely hurt by ticket scalpers, leading to an intervention by the local authorities. Tickets to Coldplay’s first-ever concert in the country have been sold out in mere minutes, leading to complaints from fans who were unable to secure tickets due to bulk purchases by scalpers. the Malaysian authorities announced a meeting with the concert organizer to address the issue, news agency Bernama reported.
Similarly, in Japan, a crackdown on scalpers led to the arrest of several individuals involved in the illicit trade. Taiwan also experienced a rise in ticket scalping, with reports of rampant ticket scalping of several concerts after the roll-back of restrictions enforced during the COVID-19 pandemic. In China, nearly 300,000 tickets for six concerts by a popular Mandopop band were sold out within five seconds, raising suspicions of scalping activity.
Legal Measures in Different Countries
To combat ticket scalping, several countries have pursued legal measures. For example, Japan’s anti-scalping law, which took effect in June 2019, prohibits reselling tickets at prices higher than their retail value for commercial purposes. Violators face up to one year in prison and/or a maximum fine of 1 million yen (7,140 USD). In Beijing, local authorities have formed a workgroup to tackle scalping through eight measures, including managing ticket origins, implementing a real-name system for sales, and limiting the number of tickets each consumer can purchase for a single performance. Despite laws and other legal action, in most markets, over 40% of all online ticket booking is completed by automated software, more than likely to later be resold at a higher price.
Adapting to the Ever-Evolving Threat of Ticket Scalping
The constantly evolving nature of scalping and the use of advanced bots make it a challenging task to tackle without a dedicated technical solution to prevent the tickets from getting into the wrong hands from the get-go.
The Need for a Comprehensive Bot Management Strategy
To effectively combat scalping, businesses need to adopt a comprehensive bot management strategy. This includes implementing an advanced bot management solution that can accurately identify and block malicious bots while allowing legitimate traffic to pass through to not interfere with legitimate, business-critical traffic. Additionally, businesses should collaborate with industry peers and government agencies to share intelligence and best practices in combating scalping and other automated threats.
The Evolving Threat of Scalping
As is with other bad bot problems, scalping is constantly evolving and advancing. Imperva Threat Research recently explored the anatomy of one of the most advanced scalping bots today, which makes use of a wide array of techniques to avoid being detected. This evolving threat requires businesses to adopt a dedicated, advanced bot management solution that is as adaptable as the threat itself, to protect their interests and ensure a fair and secure market for consumers.
Prevent Ticket Scalping with Imperva
The market-leading Imperva Advanced Bot Protection prevents bot operators, attackers, unsavory competitors, and fraudsters from abusing, misusing, and attacking your applications. It safeguards businesses from today’s most sophisticated bot attacks by utilizing a proprietary, multilayered detection process, combining state-of-the-art technology, including machine learning and behavioral analysis, with human intelligence from threat researchers and bot expert analysts. And most importantly, it does so without imposing unnecessary friction on legitimate users, maintaining the flow of business-critical traffic to your applications.
The Holistic Approach of Imperva
Advanced Bot Protection protects all access points – websites, mobile apps, and APIs against every OWASP automated threat, including scalping. It embraces a holistic approach, combining the vigilant service, superior technology, and industry expertise needed to enable customers with full visibility and control over human, good bot, and bad bot traffic, offering multiple response options for each. To learn more about bad bots, read the 2023 Imperva Bad Bot Report. This 10th edition of the annual report takes a deep dive into the latest bad bot statistics and trends from the past year, providing meaningful information and guidance about the nature and impact of bots.
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