Hooray! Hong Kong gets ticket booking apps fit for the smartphone era

Hongkongers who have endured years of frustration using web booking services such as Cityline that were conceived in the desktop era can finally buy tickets via their phones using apps with benefits too for event organisers

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Hong Kong soccer fans at the World Cup qualifying match against China. Many endured the frustration of buying tickets via Cityline. Photo: AFP

Published: 5:46am, 15 Dec 2015Updated: 5:46am, 15 Dec 2015

When it was announced that last month’s Hong Kong-China World Cup soccer qualifier would be staged at Mong Kok Stadium, the first question asked by fans was how many tickets would be made available, and the second was how could people get their hands on them.

And that’s when reality struck.

With a stadium capacity of just 6,000, numbers were always going to be restricted (about 3,000 were eventually offered to locals) and demand was always going to outstrip supply. But when fans looking for online purchases were directed towards Cityline, the air of resignation was palpable.

History has shown that the service simply fails to rise to the big occasion – the annual Hong Kong Sevens, the biggest gig in town, took its custom elsewhere after countless complaints from disappointed customers.

The Cityline service was down or sketchy from 9am on November 4 when tickets for the qualifier went on sale, and by the time they had all been sold – not long after midday – normal service had still not resumed. Disappointed fans took to social media to vent their collective spleens.

“Cityline fail at major sales event without fail, as usual”, was one posting that seemed to sum up the general mood.