Tuesdays on AltSearchEngines are reserved for those search engines willing to step out and engage in a little friendly debate with another “Alt” in their line of work.  Tonight we have an interesting new Vertical, Ticket Search engines, specifically Tickex (Dan Brinderson) and NinjaTickets (Cliff Mark).



1.  Could you summarize the difference between your search engine and, say, a Ticketmaster?

Ticketmaster is one of many Primary ticket outlets.  They sell allocations of tickets directly from the event promoters to the public. So this means that once Ticketmaster has sold out it doesn’t necessarily mean that the event has sold out.  Other Primary sources may have tickets available still as well as the secondary market. Ticketmaster also deals with the printing and delivery of the tickets.

What TickEx does is take an objective view of the entire ticket market.  We provide ticket data from primary and secondary ticket providers so the consumer sees a completely transparent marketplace. We give the consumer a comparison shopping/vertical search engine for live event tickets allowing them to see prices and availability from the numerous vendors all in one simple and fun to use search.

We simply show the consumer who has what and for how much in the world of tickets.

Ticketmaster has direct contracts with event promoters and venues to sell box office tickets online. Ticketmaster, however, can quickly sell out of tickets, and does not provide a complete listing of primary tickets for all events. That’s where Ninja Tickets comes in. Ninja Tickets indexes and compares tickets from multiple secondary sources (i.e. resales) that rarely sell out of tickets as well as from multiple primary sources. Our aim is to categorize nearly every ticketed event as well as provide a source to compare and find the best prices on popular events.

2.  How do you keep your ticket results up to date considering the short “shelf” life of tickets?”

We up date our ticket records multiple times a day to ensure the customer receives the most up to date information on pricing and availability.

A huge problem with comparing and indexing event tickets is their short shelf life. A hot ticket or a high value ticket will be bought within minutes of being posted. For comparison shopping, Ninja Ticket’s Live Results™ is essential to enabling shoppers to find the best deals. At Ninja Tickets we have industry exclusive technology which allows us to deliver Live Results™ at the time of search across all stores that we index.

3. Considering the amount of ticket results, how does your site sort tickets?

Currently the number of tickets in our index is astounding, this is partly because our high level of coverage in all markets in the US but also because we cover the UK and are expanding throughout Europe as well.

To get through the amazing selection of tickets in our database we have introduced an industry leading set of sorting tools to help you find the best ticket for you.

All of our columns in the result sets are sortable.  We have a price filter that can narrow your results from both ends.  There’s a date filter, a city filter and a venue filter that allow you to see multiple cities on multiple dates and compare prices in the different cities.

Usability is extremely important to Ninja Tickets. For popular events, 5,000 tickets may be indexed making presentation and sorting of these tickets essential to a user’s ability to effectively digest such a vast amount of information. Ninja Tickets offers sorting by quantity, price, section, and value.

Our “Price Rating” feature sorts tickets by the highest value; it’s an extremely powerful and easy tool to use. This tool is extremely valuable because comparison shopping for tickets isn’t the same as comparing handbags or cars as there are so many variables in terms of ticket value, most notably where the ticketed seat is within the venue.

4.  Do you actually sell tickets to events?  If not, what is your business model?

The beauty of our business is that we never actually touch the tickets or deal with any fulfillment.  We are what we like to call a ’super affiliate’.  It is our business to provide a great service to the consumer by making searching for tickets quick, painless and relieving because they can go away feeling like they got the best deal on a ticket available.

NinjaTickets.com is neither a direct ticket seller nor a reseller. Ninja Tickets searches for tickets from Internet ticketing stores and displays this information in a useful array. Ninja Tickets is intended to be a “one-stop” resource for locating the best value in tickets. Our main objective is to provide an unbiased, information-rich site that will attract repeat users.

5.  Are there ways in which a Ticket Search engine can have a mutually beneficial relationship with another, more general, Alternative Search Engine?

I think there are always ways that alternative search engines can benefit each other.  There are many instances that I can see TickEx partnering with other search engines out there and them being beneficial to both parties involved.

Yes, we can have a mutually beneficial relationship, that’s already in the works.

Editor’s note: Will you share it with us when you can?

6.    Where would you like to be in one year – at the very end of 2008?

By the end of 2008, I see TickEx rapidly growing as the place to go to find tickets in the eye of the consumer.  I see our service becoming the benchmark for vertical search plays in terms of quality of results, impartiality and cutting edge design. 

By December 2008, NinjaTickets will index many more sources and expand its event data. The goal of this development is to provide even better functionality and usability for searchers who want to go to one source to find all their event tickets at the best price.

I want to thank Dan and Cliff for their amiability!  If you have a question for them, please leave a comment and I’ll ask them to take a look.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 30th, 2007 at 10:10 pm and is filed under Debates. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.