Facebook is testing ‘Buy Tickets’ links for events, but will it get into the ticketing business? [Updated]

Facebook appears to be testing “Buy Tickets” buttons and links for event pages, according to All Facebook. Reportedly, these buttons are simply links to third-party sites at the moment. In other words, Facebook isn’t yet handling any transactions itself. Updates at foot of post. 

The screenshot below was taken by Blink vice president of media Eti Suruzon. Blink is an Israel-based social media agency.

According to our own tests, Facebook does in fact appear to be testing the ability for event hosts to include a “Buy Tickets” link directly in their pages. The links, however, only seem to be present on events located in Israel, suggesting that Facebook is testing the new functionality locally.

We saw the following link in action on this page:

All Facebook found similar links on other pages, but we have not been able to replicate the blue “Buy Tickets” button.

A peek at the source code reveals that the “Buy Tickets” link is a dedicated field created by Facebook (aka not just a custom link). Note the img title “Ticket URL”:

Given the above, Facebook is indeed testing the ability for users to link directly to ticket purchasing sites. But, what’s perhaps significantly more interesting is the dedicated “Buy Tickets” button, which leads us to believe that Facebook could eventually integrate ticket purchasing much more deeply.

Considering that Facebook has payments processing in place and could integrate ticketing with Facebook Gifts, it’s clear that the social giant could leave quite an impact on the events space…if it chose to do so.

Remember, it wouldn’t be the first time a company sought to integrate ticket purchasing directly into Facebook.

We have reached out to Facebook for confirmation, but have yet to hear back.

Update: The “Buy Tickets” link functionality is available for users in The Netherlands as well, and ticketing integration is already quite deep for some users. Here’s what it looks like when users add ticket details:

After sharing an event, some users are seeing “Buy Tickets” links on their timelines:

Thanks Erik Luyten!

Update 2: Inside Facebook has discovered yet another “Buy Tickets” button, and suggests that Facebook could have advertising-fueled motives for this new feature.

Image credit: Thinkstock / Thomas Northcut