The wait is over for Taylor Swift fans. Tickets for T-Swift's "Reputation" stadium tour are officially on sale, and Ticketmaster is helping her fight the fraud bots. Together, the pair created an exclusive program called "Taylor Swift Tix". Amy Howe, COO at Ticketmaster joined us to discuss how it not only helps the company and the artist, but also the fans.
One problem plaguing the ticket industry is scalpers and fraudulent bots. The goal of the exclusive program is to ensure tickets get directly into the hands of fans. Ticketmaster issued a warning about unofficial sellers who offer to sell tickets before they even have them.
Howe also touched on Ticketmaster's collaboration with the NFL. With the NFL playoffs around the corner, Ticketmaster is working to make sure fans get access to tickets using its 100% Verified Tickets platform, which ensures the ticket is real. The deal also marks a transition to the first fully digital ticketing system in sports.
Despite challenges like inflation, labor and product shortages, and the Omicron variant, holiday sales saw record levels of growth this year, according to a new report from Mastercard SpendingPulse. The group reports on national retail sales across all payment types, finding that holiday sales rose at the fastest pace in 17 years this year. Mastercard senior advisor and former chariman and CEO of Saks Incorporated Steve Sadove joined Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
Keith Fitz-Gerald, chief investment officer at Fitz-Gerald Group, spoke to Cheddar about the growing competition for Tesla's electric cars in China as tech giant Huawei enters the race. "There's a lot of legacy worry, but that does not discount the possibility that Elon might have a contender on his hands," he said about the sometimes troubled telecom company. Fitz-Gerald also gave a nod to two other local rivals, Nio and XPeng, noting the latter as having something of an edge with its CEO He Xiopeng being lauded by Chinese state media.
2021 was a wild ride for the world of cryptos. Both Bitcoin and Etherum hit new all-time highs, as well as other coins like SHIB-INU. According to several experts, crypto is here to stay and is expected to blast off in the year 2022 as more and more people invest in the crypto world. The host of "The O Show" Wendy O, joined Cheddar to discuss more.
