TheGrill 2016 Preview: Why Social Media Is Vital To China’s Movie Ticket Sales

Luke Xiang is the Vice President of Beijing WeYing Technology Ltd, a Chinese company that makes WePiao, one of the largest online movie ticketing services in the country.

WePiao and Vista Group, a software developer for the global movie industry,  recently announced a joint venture in China to expand their interests in the movie ticketing business.

By way of its partnership with Tencent, the largest internet company in Asia, WePiao offers customers discounted ticketing, information, merchandise, and concessions through Tencent’s social apps, WeChat and QQ.

In a moviegoing market where online purchasing this year soared to 80% of all ticket buying, compared with just 25% as recently as 2013, supplying online and mobile ticketing services to these millions of users is an attractive proposition. 

In many cases, the experience that users are most comfortable with is that of their preferred social network, analogous to American moviegoers making all of their ticket purchases through networks like Twitter and Facebook.

What makes these social networks such valuable portals for movie buying is the same thing that makes them attractive for advertisers: their high user traffic.

Online ticketing will become more popular and practical, high coverage of social networks, and more studios, distributors, and exhibitors able to leverage data from these social networks to market and promote movies, said Xiang.

TheGrill is the leading, annual conversation about the convergence between Entertainment, Media and Technology, bringing newsmakers together to debate the challenges and opportunities of the digital age.

Get your tickets now to see this fascinating keynote conversation along with top thought leaders around convergence in the entertainment and media industry.