Social event site begins selling tickets

NEW YORK - Social networking Web site Going.com said Wednesday its users will be able to buy event tickets on the site, starting with a Moby concert this week.

Going.com allows users to check who else plans to go to a concert or party to help decide whether to attend, and they can see how many people are interested in an event like the Moby concert.

The Web site features mostly user-organized events for the 20-something crowd in Boston, San Francisco, New York, Los Angeles and Chicago. It plans to launch in Miami and Atlanta in the next couple weeks and 10 other cities early next year.

The site seeks to tap the changing market for ticketing, which has been largely dominated by sellers like Ticketmaster. Ticketmaster, currently owned by Barry Diller's IAC/InterActiveCorp but soon to be spun off, signs exclusive ticket distribution deals with artists and concert and sports promoters.

In contrast, Going seeks to sell tickets not available through traditional outlets. Thursday's Moby concert in New York is its first event as a ticket seller.

"Ticketing was the last-mile solution for the 300,000 local monthly RSVPs that occur on our site," Going.com CEO and founder Evan Schumacher said in a statement. "Our goal was to connect the long tail of promoters with event-seeking audiences."

Site users can find one another before, during and after events they plan to attend, and they can see what events people in their networks plan to attend.

Schumacher described it as a "people delivery" business. He has started two others companies: online transportation logistics company Celarix Inc. and Everypoint, a mobile entertainment business.

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