Talk:Viagogo

COI

These utter bastards seem to have made an amazing job of sanitizing the article while staying within the WP rules. It just shows what really good PR people with a big budget can do, despite an article having protection and a well documented history of COI editing. This is probably the most egregious corporate page in WP. Ef80 (talk) 18:14, 10 July 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Updating history

Hi editors, I'm Stephanie and I work for Beutler Ink. I have a few ideas for what this article could look like (with a diff/draft here, but I know that's a lot to review so I will make smaller requests.)

My first request is two parts, the first to update the heading 2006-2011 to 2006–2011: Early years. This is a bit more descriptive and makes the dash an en-dash to be consistent with the Manual of Style.

The second part of this request is to update the first two paragraphs in the following way:

This is mostly smashing this section into two paragraphs, but does a couple other key things:

  • Adds additional context around the founding of Viagogo
  • Updates citations to be complete and corrects some duplicate reference issues
  • Removes excessive detail that comes off as a bit promotional
  • Clarifies nature of investments and partnerships, as well as removes unnecessary detail about timelines that makes the content more confusing

Content-wise, it's largely the same, but reworked in a way that I think makes it a little more encyclopedic and streamlined. This also makes paragraphs 3-5 of this section redundant, but I thought I would address that in a separate request. Let me know what you think! Stephanie BINK (talk) 20:45, 25 August 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Done Encoded  Talk 💬 09:50, 13 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]
@Encoded: thanks! Stephanie BINK (talk) 01:23, 15 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Redundant paragraphs

Hi editors, the final three paragraphs in the 2006–2011 section are now redundant. I propose removing them:

By 2006, Viagogo was backed by venture capital investment firm Index Ventures as well as Brent Hoberman and Jacob Rothschild, 4th Baron Rothschild. Officially debuting in the United Kingdom on August 18, 2006 as an online ticket exchange designed to bypass physical ticket resale, Viagogo stated it offered users more protection than competitors such as eBay by guaranteeing refunds for tickets that were fake or didn't arrive. The company received funding from Index Ventures, Brent Hoberman, Jacob Rothschild, 4th Baron Rothschild, and Bessemer Venture Partners. In February 2020 the company purchased StubHub for $4 billion with the merging process finalized in 2022.

In August 2007, Viagogo branched into Germany partnered with Bayern Munich. With Baker as CEO, Viagogo raised £30 million in August 2007 from investors including Brent Hoberman, Bernard Arnault, Jacob Rothschild, and Index Ventures. Viagogo had local sites in Germany, Holland, and Hammersmith, London by 2008. Viagogo by that January had traded £50 million in tickets overall and signed deals with Warner Music and James Blunt.

In May 2008, Live Nation hired Viagogo as one of its ticket sellers in Europe for Madonna's Sticky & Sweet tour. Also in 2008, the French Tennis Federation appointed Viagogo the official ticket marketplace of the French Open. Baker stated the company sold $100 million in tickets in 2008, with the company making 25% of that. By June 2009, new investors included Andre Agassi, bringing total funds raised to $70 million. Viagogo was also an official resale partner of Michael Jackson, Lloyd-Webber's Really Useful Group, and the ATP World Tour Finals. According to The Guardian, "a fundraising effort in 2009 valued the company at $300m".

These paragraphs:

  • State Jacob Rothschild, Brent Hoberman, Index Ventures, and Bessemer Venture Partners were investors three times
    • I realize now that this would remove all mention of Index and Bessemer, I am fine with retaining Index per this source[1] but I don't see any references to Bessemer until much later, relating to the StubHub purchase, so I think those mentions should be removed
  • Note the purchase of StubHub in 2020 – this is totally out of place in the timeline and redundant to later paragraphs
  • Repeat partnerships with Madonna, French Open, Michael Jackson; Bernard Arnault's and Andre Agassi's investment
  • Have some grammar issues
  • Have some information on revenue that I plan to ask to be added back in a slightly different form with future requests

References

  1. ^ Sweney, Mark (18 August 2006). "Clubs launch ticket resale site". The Guardian. Retrieved 14 June 2025.

Please let me know what you think! @Encoded: would you be interested in taking a look at this request as well? I also noticed there is a reference error (that's my bad, I had the full reference later in the draft and forgot to put it in that request), I am happy to fix that if you like, just want to raise it here before direct editing. Thanks! Stephanie BINK (talk) 01:23, 15 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Not done: Implemented as part of a larger COI request. See below. CNMall41 (talk) 21:54, 6 December 2025 (UTC)[reply]

2006–2011 addition

Hi editors, while the above request to remove the redundant content is being considered I wanted to propose an addition that would round out the 2006–2011 section. I propose that this be added to the end of the section, after the content I have proposed to remove:

This brings the section to 2011 instead of it ending in 2009, making it a more complete overview. It also makes the first three sentences of Viagogo#UK_government redundant, so I would propose removing those as well, but am happy to do so in another request. Please let me know what you think! @Encoded and AlphaBetaGamma: pinging you in case you are interested in taking a look at this request or the previous one since you have reviewed requests of mine on this Talk page in the past. Cheers Stephanie BINK (talk) 22:14, 3 November 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Not done: Implemented as a larger COI request (see below). CNMall41 (talk) 21:54, 6 December 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Edit requests

In order to facilitate what I anticipated being a ton of piece mail edits, I reviewed this userspace draft of Stephanie BINK in order to save everyone's time (and hopefully sanity). After slight changes I am going to implement that version to the main page. Prior to that, wanted to leave it open for discussion in case any editors want to opine. Specifically pinging @Encoded: who previously answered requests here as they may be more familiar with the content. CNMall41 (talk) 17:46, 3 December 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Hey thanks for the ping. Only had time for a quick look over since my inbox is currently bursting at the seams, but no objections from me from a content perspective, happy that the controversies section is adequately reflected inline per CSECTION as you mentioned in your edit summary. Happy for that to be implemented, thanks for sorting this! Encoded  Talk 💬 22:39, 3 December 2025 (UTC)[reply]
@Stephanie BINK:, I implemented the content and will close out the other COI requests. I will need you to look through and correct the error for the "Guardian6" refname. It is defined twice for two different sources. If you can correct that directly on the page we should be all set. --CNMall41 (talk) 21:53, 6 December 2025 (UTC)add[reply]
@CNMall41: found and fixed! Thanks for reviewing! Stephanie BINK (talk) 18:32, 8 December 2025 (UTC)[reply]
allikas: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Viagogo