At present, the e-commerce initiative is in its test stage and only available in the San Francisco Bay Area, where Facebook has partnered with local venues, artists, and event promoters. Customers who purchase gig tickets from Facebook would collect them from will-call windows; paper and e-tickets are not currently being issued. Whether or not this will change in the future has not been divulged.
According to Facebook, it will not be taking a share of the ticket price. Once the ticket is purchased, fulfilment of the deal will rest with third-parties and a confirmation email will be sent to the customer’s registered Facebook email address.
The feature comes on the heels of an e-commerce push by the social network, which has seen it embed “buy now” buttons for consumer products featured on selected brand pages — much like an e-retail platform. Additionally, yesterday, the social network introduced a new page plug-in for businesses that would allow them to integrate Facebook messaging tools on their website. More events page integration for brands was also announced, according to The Next Web.
Reports of the “buy tickets” button have been circulating for months. “Reducing the friction for buying a ticket is something that we think would be pretty interesting to do eventually,” Facebook product manager Aditya Koolwal told BuzzFeed News in September. “That’s definitely a very interesting thing that we’re waiting for the right time for.” It turns out the time is now.
