“Safe and Secure Ticket Sales” is what Agora’s new May Week marketplace promised, and it lives up to this. Agora has solved its target issue and has done so with style: while sending large sums of money blindly to strangers is a leap of faith, sending it to Agora as an escrow is safer.

Payments for posted tickets are made via bank transfer to Agora, and then the buyer and seller are connected to figure out details about name changes, etc. As the Agora team puts it, “[W]e act as a kind of financial intermediary, holding the buyer’s payment securely until everyone’s happy with the sale. The payment is passed from Agora to the seller if and only if both seller and buyer agree that they are satisfied.”

Beyond the payment security, the platform is pleasing. Agora uses the Django web framework for the website’s backend that also backs Pinterest and Instagram among other serveices. React.js is used for the frontend, used by Facebook, Netflix and Khan Academy. The tools are well utilized.

The user interface is simple. Not only are the features easy to understand, but also the layout is clean. In particular, with all the details for different Garden Parties and events, the page as a one-stop glance for major events occurring during May Week.

For sellers, rather than relying upon being at the top of the Facebook list of posts or using friends of friends to shed unwanted tickets, the posts on Agora are compiled and available consistently until sold. Cheaper tickets are easier to find and get snapped up quickly as email notifications are sent whenever new June Event and May Ball tickets are posted.

The price is slightly increased from advertised given that Agora needs funds to support the service and that part of every sale is given to charity, but the marginal increase is worth it. According to the Agora team, they project that about £2,000 will have been raised for various charities by May Week’s end.

Given that safety in ticket sales was key in this iteration of the new marketplace, the progress made is admirable. Yet the next stride for the platform may well be removing excess friction in the process. While it is easier to post tickets and find them, the negotiations behind the name change and other details take place off of the platform. These negotiations are required in every means of selling tickets, but Agora has a unique opportunity to work with May Ball committees to take care of name changes and the like. Such a collaboration would not only standardize and optimize different ticketing processes across colleges but also would remove pressure from the committees to handle each name change individually via email. One reason that name changes are so expensive is as a deterrent to numerous and arduous ticket changes.Similarly, among many different online payment options such as PayPal or Venmo, only bank transfers are accepted. While not necessary, providing greater breadth of options would be icing on the prove rbial cake.

The new May Ball platform provides safety and security and a smoother means to transfer tickets, and should be applauded as the first iteration. Nevertheless, now the platform is up and running, Agora should be bold moving forward in ensuring that the experience of exchanging May Ball tickets is as frictionless as possible.