Can going to Hong Kong internet cafes help you score Blackpink concert tickets?
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About half of the 24 customers at the cafe in Causeway Bay were eager fans hoping to secure concert tickets, including 30-year-old secretary Wong, whose goal was to get four HK$2,899 (US$370) standing passes in the 50,000-seat venue.
She prepared herself by opening several browser tabs on her assigned desktop while logging into the ticketing website on her smartphones and tablets.
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'I heard that the internet speed here is faster; it's on fibre. It's my first attempt at booking tickets at a cafe,' Wong said.
With ticket scalping rampant in Hong Kong, Wong was among some residents willing to go the extra mile of renting a computer at an internet cafe – traditionally used for gaming – to try their luck at getting tickets for concerts or sporting events.
Such fans believed that internet cafes gave them a better chance of getting into the online booking queue compared with their personal or office computers.
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But Wong's first attempt did not yield success. After waiting for an hour and spending HK$38 to rent a computer at the cafe, she decided to give up.
'Pretty sure many are reselling as scalper tickets. Otherwise, it can't be such a long wait,' Wong said in frustration. 'If it's not a real-name registration system, you can hardly get tickets.'
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