viagogo enters the German market

viagogo, Germany’s first secure Internet platform for reselling and trading tickets, officially announced its major launch in Germany today. The service bridges a market gap that became clear in the 2006 World Cup year : Consumers lacked a secure way to trade tickets online. viagogo focuses on security and risk-elimination. In all transactions on the internet platform www.viagogo.de, the company helps consumers by taking care of payments clearing and ticket dispatch. At the same time, viagogo guarantees that purchasers receive the ticket they paid for – and the sellers the negotiated price.

viagogo CEO Eric Baker launched the company in August 2006 with a major site launch in the United Kingdom and a beta site launch in Germany. Prior to viagogo, he had founded StubHub.com, the leading U.S. online secondary ticketing company for live events, which was taken over by eBay last week for an announced sum of approximately 310 million US$. viagogo has done very well in the UK, where it has secured exclusive cooperations with FC Chelsea and Manchester United. With today’s major launch of www.viagogo.de, Germany marks the second market viagogo is venturing into. Investors and board members of the company include numerous experienced media and Internet entrepreneurs such as Dr. Herbert Kloiber, CEO of the Tele München Gruppe as well as the Jamba founders Alexander, Marc and Oliver Samwer through their venture company European Founders Fund.

“To date, German consumers lacked a secure, risk-free and guaranteed way to buy and sell tickets for concert or sports events in the secondary market. In contrast to current providers, viagogo renders this service”, says Eric Baker. Baker assesses the market opportunities in Germany positively: “eBay purchased StubHub in the USA because they saw the huge opportunity in secondary ticketing. In Europe, viagogo has the advantage of flexibility and experience in this market segment, which according to our estimates has a potential of 6 –8 billion Euros across Europe. Our UK sales have already exceeded our expectations – this is why I am convinced that we will also be successful in Germany.”

www.viagogo.de

Press contact: For further information please contact:
Publicis Consultants | Deutschland, Nasrin Shaikh
Tel. +49 69 15402 399, nasrin.shaikh@publicis-consultants.de