The excitement and anxiety were palpable at an internet cafe in Hong Kong as patrons waited for tickets to go on sale for K-pop sensation Blackpink’s concert at Kai Tak Stadium next year.
About half of the 24 customers at the cafe in Causeway Bay were eager fans hoping to secure concert tickets, including 30-year-old secretary Wong, whose goal was to get four HK$2,899 (US$370) standing passes in the 50,000-seat venue.
She prepared herself by opening several browser tabs on her assigned desktop while logging into the ticketing website on her smartphones and tablets.
“I heard that the internet speed here is faster; it’s on fibre. It’s my first attempt at booking tickets at a cafe,” Wong said.
With ticket scalping rampant in Hong Kong, Wong was among some residents willing to go the extra mile of renting a computer at an internet cafe – traditionally used for gaming – to try their luck at getting tickets for concerts or sporting events.
Such fans believed that internet cafes gave them a better chance of getting into the online booking queue compared with their personal or office computers.
But Wong’s first attempt did not yield success. After waiting for an hour and spending HK$38 to rent a computer at the cafe, she decided to give up.
“Pretty sure many are reselling as scalper tickets. Otherwise, it can’t be such a long wait,” Wong said in frustration. “If it’s not a real-name registration system, you can hardly get tickets.”
