After failing to meet eBay’s earning expectations, StubHub has gone through a serious round of layoffs, letting go of approximately 100 of their 700 employees, according to TechCrunch. Due to changes in the secondary ticket market, the increasing popularity of electronic tickets, and competitors like TicketNetwork and Ticketmaster Plus, StubHub is struggling to keep up. In a statement to TechCrunch, StubHub confirmed the layoffs, stating:
“StubHub announced a reorganization in June that will allow us to be more nimble and efficient in serving fans. The organization change had the unfortunate consequence of eliminating the roles of some StubHub employees. The majority of positions eliminated were in our Field Operations division, where the proliferation of electronic tickets has reduced our need for on the ground customer support.”
However, the reasons behind the company’s reorganization likely stem from other issues as well. After StubHub did away with its hidden costs in January, moving to a pricing scheme that incorporates fees into the price initially seen by the customer, sales have fallen. According to a March Wall Street Journal story, some ticket brokers who resell their tickets on StubHub said that their sales had fallen from 15% to 50% since the “all-in” pricing took effect three months earlier.
StubHub’s fall has been steep and dramatic. Just last year, the East Granby location was listed as one of the top places to work in Connecticut by the Hartford Courant, and in 2012, it won first place in the Courant/Fox CT Top Workplaces. In contrast, one of the business’s top competitors, South Windsor based TicketNetwork, has seen phenomenal growth, almost doubling its workforce over the last year and a half.
With StubHub’s recent layoffs and dips in sales, it will be interesting to see where the future takes them in the ticket industry.
