Industry News

StubHub stagnates despite international sales boost

StubHub saw a five-per-cent year-on-year drop in sales despite a strong international performance during the second quarter of 2017.

In a trading update published by parent company eBay, the ticket operator’s gross merchandise value (GMV) fell from $1.06bn (£815m/€910m) to $1.01bn. However, the figure was up 10 per cent on the first quarter of the year.

Net revenue between April and June was up slightly from $225m to $227m year-on-year, with that figure 11 per cent greater than the $204m posted in Q1 2017.

eBay said StubHub’s figures were “driven by a softer US events landscape compared to last year, partially offset by strong international growth”.

International sales made up five per cent of StubHub’s total, compared to just one per cent in Q2 2016 and four per cent in Q1 2017.

In an update of operations, eBay noted that StubHub launched an enhanced suite of tools for ticket sellers in North America, including a new price setting recommendation tool, “making the process to sell tickets easier”.

StubHub and eBay Corporate spent $9m on marketing during the three-month period, which was a third greater than the amount spent in Q1.

eBay itself delivered GMV of $21.5bn, an increase of three per cent year-on-year. Revenue for the quarter was $2.3bn, up four per cent on an as-reported basis.

eBay defines GMV as total value of all successfully closed transactions between users during the period regardless of whether the buyer and seller actually consummated the transaction. It says that GMV “provides a useful measure of the overall volume of closed transactions that flow through our platforms in a given period, notwithstanding the inclusion in GMV of closed transactions that are not ultimately consummated”.