Kylie fans swamp Ticketek's Web site
Ticketek, which is one of Australia's most popular online ticket booking sites, had taken precautions to ensure the site continued to function by restricting the number of people that logging on at the same time. According to Ticketek, its site can handle "thousands of simultaneous transactions".
Peter Stirling Benson, chief executive officer of Ticketek, told ZDNet Australia that the company was expecting a "Hot Show Day", which means it anticipated a high volume of visitors to the site -- similar to the first day tickets for other major events such as WaveAid, and the Rugby World Cup.
"In order to preserve the stability of the Ticketek Web site and provide the best possible service to our customers we manage the number of users entering our site at any one time. We also limit the amount of time they spend on our site to 15 minutes on a Hot Show Day to ensure all customers have enough time to complete their transaction. Only when the transaction is complete can new users enter the site," said Benson.
Most visitors to the Web site were greeted with a message informing them that "tickets to a major event have gone on sale and the Web site is currently experiencing high demand. As current users leave the site you may be able to gain entry".
However, some fans decided they would have a better chance of securing some Kylie tickets by queuing outside a ticket vendor's shop instead.
Jarrod Green, an advertising manager from Sydney, said that although he has used Ticketek in the past, this time he did not want to take any risks.
"I needed to get 12 tickets this time so I was more cautious in my thinking - I didn't want to mess things up so decided to wait in line at Fish records in Newtown".
Green said that although he had to wait for hours it was worth the effort because he got the tickets he wanted.
"We started to queue at 4am on Sunday and it was definitely worth the wait. It was a very good idea to be prepared," said Green.
This is not the first time Kylie has caused problems for Ticketek. In June 2002 the company's Web site and call centres reached capacity when the pop diva announced the Australian leg of her world tour.