StubHub's first foray into the world of virtual reality has made a 360-degree view of the NRG Stadium at Houston and the AT&T Park at San Francisco available through VR setups.
Before shelling out hard-earned money for the Final Four tickets this week, StubHub users can now use the app to see 3D renderings of the NRG Stadium. Through VR, users can gauge the distance between the seats and the playing field, so that each user will know exactly what to expect from the tickets they buy and the seats they reserve.
"We didn't want to do something just for fun or [as] a marketing gimmick," said StubHub's Marcus Shelksohn.
The StubHub app works for VR setups like the Samsung Gear VR or the Google Cardboard. Even without a VR headset, however, users can still use the app to check the sightlines covered by their seats by just moving their phones from side to side. The StubHub app is supported by both iOS and Android.
StubHub is one of the pioneers in using VR as a platform for selling products, along with Rukkus, which also sells tickets and allows users to check out their seats through VR. Unlike StubHub, however, Rukkus uses photographs stitched together for their VR experience. StubHub claims, however, that the 3D renderings offer a cleaner and crisper VR experience compared to photographs.
Using VR to sell tickets is not the only use that StubHub's mother company, eBay, has in store for the technology. According to eBay's CEO, Devin Wenig, the company also plans on using VR as a platform to sell high-value items so potential buyers can see an item up close before buying. These items include paintings, sculptures and luxury items such as cars.
"The plan is to start to attack some of those more emotionally driven categories where the trust gap is hard to bridge," Wenig said.
Photo: Mike Mozart | Flickr
