Upgrades to Hong Kong’s online ticket system will improve website congestion, but cannot prevent incidents such as Blackpink ticket nightmare, experts say

An upgrade to a government-run online ticketing system launching on Thursday could improve website congestion, but it cannot fully prevent incidents such as fans not being able to secure spots at K-pop sensation Blackpink’s upcoming concerts in Hong Kong, experts have said.

The Leisure and Cultural Services Department said under the changes, the Urban Ticketing System (Urbtix) would be able to accommodate about 20,000 users at the same time, a tenfold increase from its existing capacity of 2,000.

Music fans have expressed frustration over website congestion issues at Urbtix, saying there are long waiting hours for popular concerts and events in recent years.

The department said the upgraded system relied on cloud technology to handle a larger volume of ticket purchases, adding capacity could be scaled up to 100,000 according to operational requirements.

A new virtual queuing function showing a user’s position in real-time has also been added, along with a mobile app offering more e-payment options.

Francis Fong Po-kiu, honorary president of the Hong Kong Information Technology Federation, said the new Urbtix system should be able to divert ticket buyers to different servers to increase the chances of them landing on the purchasing page.

“Transparency in the queuing status could offer a more favourable user experience as buyers will know what to expect, instead of them staying in front of the computer, not knowing whether they can buy the tickets, which was frustrating for them,” Fong said.

Jake Koh, chairman and executive director of Cityline, the current network contractor of Urbtix, said he believed the new system could alleviate online congestion issues and speed up the buying process.

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“The purchasing time will definitely be shorter. We are experienced with filtering ‘robots’ equipped with automatic programmes occupying the system to buy a large amount of tickets, so that we can create a relatively fairer environment for ticket buyers,” Koh said.

Blackpink, a four-member K-pop girl band, will perform three shows at AsiaWorld-Expo from January 13 to 15 next year and all public tickets were sold out in two hours last Wednesday on Cityline. Last week, reports surfaced that scalpers were selling the tickets for HK$15,000 - 22 times their original price.

Cherry Wong Yin-yi, 32, a secretary working at an accounting firm in Central, said she was not able to get tickets to the concert even though she had spent half a day in front of her computer.

“The Cityline system just showed text saying the ticketing sessions have been taken up by customers, and a retry button on the website when I tried to buy the tickets. I didn’t dare leave my computer or I would miss my chance to get to the purchasing page,” Wong said.

“It’s been very upsetting because it also happened when I tried to secure concert tickets for Mirror through Urbtix in May. I didn’t even know if the system was responding for 12 hours,” she added, referring to performances by popular Cantopop boy band Mirror in July.

Fong of the Hong Kong Information Technology Federation said he believed the revamped Urbtix system could not guarantee that fans would get their desired tickets, and real-name registration to secure spots was necessary to shorten the purchasing queue.

“Ticketing platforms need to conduct stress tests before launching their services. But it really depends on how many people are accessing at the same time and how popular the shows are to determine whether it can handle traffic. There is no guarantee that people will get what they want,” he said.

Duncan Chiu Tat-kun, lawmaker for the information and technology sector, agreed that residents and music fans could still face disappointment despite the upgrades.

“The expanded capacity of Urbtix should be able to facilitate the need of the residents for most events. Increasing servers to tackle traffic is the easiest way to address the complaints about the old system.

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“But imagine if a concert attracts 300,000 people to buy tickets, there’s still missing gaps even if you can further expand the system capacity,” Chiu said.

Cantopop star Eason Chan Yick-shun will return to the stage at the Hong Kong Coliseum nine years after his last concert, with 18 shows scheduled in December, including one for the New Year countdown, and seven more in January.

Anthony Lai Chu-hang, 36, a local busker, was able to secure Chan’s upcoming concert tickets last month through Urbtix with a six-hour wait.

“I believe many fans and I need to see how the new platform functions when popular shows come up next, but I don’t expect people will know if the new platform is better until then,” he said.

“I just hope people will no longer need to stay still in front of the computer for hours to buy tickets.”