While most ticketing platforms came unstuck with the amount of volume and demand for Taylor Swift’s world tour ticket sales, Klook, Asia’s leading travel and experiences platform, didn’t face any hiccups.
On 7 July, Klook Experiences Packages for the Taylor Swift | The Eras Tour in Singapore sold out in just hours, with Filipino Swifties securing the most tickets through the app. More than 600,000 fans across the region eagerly waited online with their Klook app, willing to spend big on bundled hotel and ticket packages, with the most extravagant package costing almost S$5,000 (roughly Php205,000).
How exactly did the company pull this off?
“Ticketing concerts and music events is not new to us; in fact, we have been preparing for such high-volume events even before the pandemic hit. With the pandemic-induced event hiatus, we capitalized on the opportunity to ramp up our systems, push our capabilities to new limits, and really deliver an unparalleled booking experience as we’ve seen with the successful Taylor Swift ticket sales,” shared Bernie Xiong, CTO & Co-Founder, Klook. “As a travel tech company at our core, we have honed our expertise in handling diverse travel products, from attractions to rail tickets, each with its own complexities. The accumulation of all that know-how, learnings and experience combined with our dedicated tech team truly made this possible.”
Robust Tech Infrastructure to Manage Over 10 Million Users Entering the Queue in 1 Second
Klook’s infrastructure, specifically designed to handle massive traffic volumes across multiple locales, played a pivotal role in the seamless ticket sale for Taylor Swift’s Singapore tour. With the ability to manage over 10 million users queueing concurrently, Klook’s system proved its mettle. In fact, the platform possesses the potential to scale even further, thanks to its near real-time capacity management and resource provisioning, allowing Klook to dynamically adapt its system resources to ensure a consistently smooth user experience.
How exactly does this work? By leveraging what is known as a Content Delivery Network (CDN) system combined with Edge Computing technologies, Klook’s in-house queuing system adjusts its pass-through rate automatically to manage millions of users worldwide browsing and carting out seamlessly, ultimately creating that perfect harmonious blend of stability and queue management. The result? No crashes, with the system capable of processing over 10 million users queueing per second with thousands of successful transactions each minute. That’s equivalent to filling a colossal 60,000-seat concert venue with joyful ticket holders in minutes.
Rigorous load and stress testing played a key role in Klook’s ability to handle the surge in demand during peak times without compromising system performance. The platform not only handled ticket sales for the concert, it was still functioning normally for all other users who wanted to discover and book Klook’s wide range of over 500,000 experiences, hotels and mobility options. In fact, Friday tends to be one of Klook’s busiest days with customers preparing for their upcoming weekend trips or plans.
AI Powered Anti-Fraud System to Ensure a Level Playing Field for Fans
One persistent issue that often plagues consumers is the presence of ticket scalpers and bots, which severely impacts the ticket-buying and concert experience. To combat these challenges, Klook implemented an app-only approach which ensured that genuine fans tagged with a unique ID had a fair chance to secure tickets, eliminating the need for multiple devices and accounts that could strain the platform.
By leveraging the capabilities of AI in its in-house fraud prevention and security system, Klook employs techniques such as device fingerprinting and behavior analysis to detect and mitigate suspicious activities. By closely examining user accounts and identifying anomalous behaviors, Klook’s robust system can swiftly reject fraudulent orders or subject them to manual verifications, ensuring a secure ticketing process and making it more difficult for sophisticated bots used by scalpers to operate.
These measures helped level the playing field and ensured that fans have an equal and fair opportunity to secure their Taylor Swift tickets whilst also enhancing their overall ticketing experience.
These successes were not accidental but have been three years in the making for the leading travel platform. Klook already had skin in the game – developing the infrastructure to support high-traffic events such as JJ Lin and Jay Chou’s concerts.
Klook is adding a unique angle to music tourism and revolutionising the entire booking experience. Leveraging the company’s expertise across multiple travel verticals, Klook curates and creates value-added bundles that go beyond standalone tickets. Fans can enjoy multi-day experiences and services ranging across all things play (attractions, experiences), stay (hotel nights, staycations) and move (rail, car rental or transfers), ultimately driving greater economic benefit to the host destination. Klook’s data reveals that when tourists attend a concert or event, their incremental in-destination spending can range from 4-5 times the face value of the ticket.
As for what’s next? Swifties who managed to book an Experience package can look forward to more joyful things-to-do on Klook when they visit Singapore in March 2024. With musical tourism and the likes of experiential travel continuing to grow, Klook continues to push boundaries and help travelers create more moments of joy.
