Recently, I tried to access a popular ticket reservation site right when bookings opened, only to encounter a screen stating, “We are currently experiencing high traffic and have difficulty connecting. We apologize for the inconvenience. Please wait a while and try again.”
Despite repeatedly refreshing the page, clearing the cache, trying different browsers, and waiting five minutes, the normal screen finally appeared. With relief, I quickly clicked the purchase button, only to be greeted with “Sales Ended.”
The tickets sold out within five minutes. It couldn’t be helped.
What’s puzzling is that this isn’t a basic rental server or a system used by small businesses—it’s one of Japan’s leading reservation services. One would expect they’d have designed and implemented robust load balancing mechanisms to handle peak traffic. Even banks and securities firms’ systems are built to withstand massive spikes in activity. Are they skimping on investments, or is it simply accepted as inevitable?
Stories like “I lost connection right when sales started, and by the time I got through five minutes later, tickets were gone” are reminiscent of the old days of telephone woes. Despite technological advances and profound changes in our lives, it seems the process of securing popular tickets hasn’t evolved much; only the tools have changed.
Technically, it shouldn’t be insurmountable. Perhaps, like many other challenges, it’s a matter of human adaptation lagging behind technological capabilities.
