Today, the topic "12306 I met a real boss while grabbing tickets" became a hot search topic on Weibo. A netizen made a detailed analysis of 12306’s ticket selling logic and waitlist functions, and this matter also aroused heated discussion.
According to this netizen:The underlying logic of 12306 is to maximize the benefits of railway ticket sales. The waiting list actually means releasing the demand to the railway department, which is similar to the release schedule of Didi Taxi.
For example, if you want to buy a G99 ticket from Jingdezhen (Shanghai Hongqiao to Hong Kong West Kowloon) to Ganzhou, even if you swipe the ticket when it goes on sale 15 days in advance, you will find that there is no ticket. It’s not that I really don’t have tickets, but I don’t want to sell them to you.
Why? Because you bought a seat for the section from Jingdezhen to Ganzhou, the sections from Shanghai to Jingdezhen and Ganzhou to West Kowloon may be vacant. So when you find that there are no tickets from Jingdezhen to Ganzhou, you can see that tickets are available from Shanghai Hongqiao to Hong Kong West Kowloon, the destination.
There is no need to worry at this time, because the tickets are available, but they are not sold to you.At this time, you are on the waiting list. When there are people waiting on the waiting list at the same time from Shanghai Hongqiao to Jingdezhen and Ganzhou to Hong Kong West Kowloon, three tickets will be available at the same time, because the benefits are maximized.
The netizen further explained, "I know people don't like waiting lists and like to keep refreshing to see if there are any tickets." But the railway department hopes that everyone will wait in line, because first, you have to queue up to wait.
Take the G99 trip just now as an example. If the itinerary of the two groups of people happens to cover the entire train journey, then the third waitlist is sorry, you can't get a ticket, and you have to wait for the third group.
Second, the waitlist is to release the itinerary to let the railway department know. Railways know how much demand there is before they decide how to drive. Some trains are originally 8 cars and only have more than 500 tickets. If the waiting list + has sold more than 700, then the railway department can extend the train to 16 cars and the number of tickets reaches 1,000.
Therefore, timely waiting list can allow the railway department to more accurately grasp everyone's needs and increase the probability of everyone buying tickets.
