Although ticket scalping has long been an issue, it was G-Dragon’s recent concert in Kuala Lumpur that brought the matter into sharper focus. Malaysian fans were outraged when the two-day show sold out almost instantly, with many unable even to reach the checkout stage. In response, the government has since proposed an anti-scalping law to tackle the problem.
Concert organisers also appear to be taking note, introducing measures to ensure genuine fans have a fairer chance of securing tickets to see their favourite idol. Here’s what we mean:
Last month, it was announced that NCT DREAM (엔시티 드림) will be returning to Malaysia this December for their “The Dream Show 4: Dream The Future” tour. At the time, ticket sales had yet to open, but many fans were outraged after an alleged scalper attempted to resell an insider ticket. Since then, fans have expressed hopes that they will not have to face more scalpers or bots once sales go live.
It seems that the organiser, Live Nation Malaysia, and official ticketing site, GoLive Asia, have listened to their concerns and introduced measures to make it more difficult for resellers to get hold of tickets. As shown in the screenshots above, fans rushed online to purchase concert tickets as soon as sales went live earlier this week. To their surprise and delight, Malaysian fans were greeted with puzzles and questions that had to be solved within the time limit before they could proceed to checkout.
The puzzle featured an image of the iconic National Monument that they had to rearrange, while the quiz focused on all things related to both NCT DREAM and Malaysia. Fans went on to thank Live Nation and GoLive for introducing this solution, which ensured Malaysian fans were prioritised for the upcoming concert. While many praised the move, some suggested that even more challenging questions, ones only Malaysians would know, could be used in future.
Fans also urged other concert organisers to take note and adopt similar measures for upcoming shows. For your information, Thai Ticket Major introduced a similar ticketing system last year for SEVENTEEN’s concert in Bangkok, and many Malaysians are pleased to see a comparable approach now being adopted locally to tackle scalping. Let’s hope that, alongside the government’s proposed anti-scalping law, measures such as these will help improve the concert-going experience for everyone.
