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.
The largest car search platform in India, Cardekho, recently raised $250 million in what the company calls a pre-IPO round led by leapfrog investments. The funding bumps CarDekho above unicorn status with a $1.2 billion valuation. The company currently has a catalogue of more than 3,000 pre-owned cars for online purchases and hopes to expand with the new funding. Partner and co-head of South Asian investment for LeapFrog Stewart Langdon joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
E-scooter company Bird made its public debut on the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday. CFO Yibo Ling joined Cheddar to discuss what made the company launch a SPAC IPO now. Ling noted one of the deciding factors was the need to scale the business to help take "gas-guzzling cars off the road" by growing into more locations. "A large portion of our proceeds will go to fund expansion into these new geographies," he said.
Thuc Vu, CEO and co-founder of Ohmnilabs, joins 'Cheddar Innovates' to discuss how robots are playing a role in the return to the office, and what's in store for the future of the robotics industry.
Joan E. Solsman, a senior reporter at CNET, joined Cheddar's "Opening Bell" to talk about Netflix moving to offer mobile video games for Android users as part of their subscription. She said this is likely one "baby step" for the streaming giant as it moves into the space. "You can see what Netflix wants to do eventually down the line is have these great ambitions to make their service be more than just passive TV, movies," she said. "They're moving more into merchandising, that they're moving more into in-person experiences. They're trying to broaden a way, which is a great thing to do when everyone keeps talking about metaverses."
