Why Eventbrite is creating a localized platform for Singapore
Eventbrite is launching a localized platform in Singapore today (February 27) after witnessing strong organic growth in the country, having processed close to five million tickets and organized more than 90,000 events in since its inception in the country.
The San Francisco-based event management and ticketing website, which currently has its Asia Pacific headquarters in Australia, is keen to tap into live experiences in the country, which Phil Silverstone, the general manager for APAC at Eventbrite says is very much a part of Singapore's cultural fabric.
Silverstone spoke to The Drum while visiting Singapore, where he met Eventbrite’s distribution partners and event creators on its platform.
“The reason we're making such a splash about launching here in Singapore is that it is the first time we are making it possible to pay in Singapore dollars and unlocking some of the functionality we offer in other markets but have not to date in Singapore,” he explains.
“For example, paying out funds to creators in advance of the event to help give creators working capital flow, or offering reserved seating capabilities on the platform. In terms of physical investment, we are really excited to be putting a staff member on the ground to really help build local relationships and pursue a deeper understanding of the market to better serve local event creators.”
As part of the launch, Eventbrite released research it conducted with Roy Morgan that found 95% of Singaporeans attended an event in the past 12 months; with almost half (44%) of those surveyed stating they intend to increase the number of events they attend in the next year.
The research also found on average, Singaporeans reported that they spent a total of S$429 on live experiences from November 2017 to November 2018, while 13% of those surveyed reported that they spent more than S$1000 in that same period.
There is no shortage of event ticketing companies in Singapore like SISTIC, APACTix and Peatix, given its position as a regional event hub and a stacked events calendar, holding global events like the Formula One and Ultra Music Festival.
However, Silverstone says Eventbrite is less focused on its competitors and more focused on its customers, as the company is investing in this market so that it can better understand the needs of its creators and make sure that the product is a good local market fit.
The platform currently has over 17,000 Singaporean event creators using its platform to hold events such as the Pinot Palooza pinot noir festival, Saturday Kids’ children’s educational workshops and performances at The Singapore American School, with over 4.9 million tickets transacted to date.
He adds that as the company goes into a new market, it starts to explore the different segments because the events industry is a broad and varied industry. He ticks off events like conferences, music venues, food and wine festivals, workshops and classes but says as Eventbrite meet and lean in on learning about those segments, it may find different needs and different opportunities.
“Probably the biggest challenge for our business is that strategic focus, because we have a platform that does a good job of meeting the needs horizontally across the market, but with only one person on the ground to start with, we have to make sure that we're appropriately focused to realize opportunities, rather than spreading ourselves too thin,” he explains.
Silverstone says that, while competition may be tough, the business has invested in tools that give event creators the ability to extend the reach of their event and a user experience that is helping some partners to convert audiences to ticket buyers at twice the average rate.
To do this, he claims that the Eventbrite platform has analytics and reporting capabilities to allow creators to have access to real-time visibility into purchase behavior. By knowing exactly which channels and sessions are leading to purchase, he says event creators can do more to tailor the user experience and create more personalized, compelling content for potential attendees.
On event day, Eventbrite’s Organiser App allows event creators to stay up to speed with live attendance tracking, which he says helps event creators make faster and more informed decisions.
“Eventbrite is entering the market at a time of immense growth in the events category, bringing a range of unique and innovative solutions for helping event creators sell more tickets,” he says.
“As a horizontal technology platform, we don't have a single focus on any key vertical – one of the key features of the Eventbrite platform is that it flexes to the needs of event creators in every category imaginable, from food and drink festivals, to live music gigs; yoga classes to kids' coding camps.”
It has also introduced ‘Buy On Facebook’, an integration that allows event creators and attendees to sell and buy tickets directly through Facebook. This allows event attendees to secure a ticket without having to leave Facebook.
As a technology-first company, Silverstone says Eventbrite puts a real focus on innovation, employing over 300 people in its product and engineering teams across the globe, centred in Silicon Valley, to build the technology on its platform
That results in a broad range of solutions centered on the event creator, he explains, with radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags being one example of technology that the company is currently exploring to help creators of larger events in terms of data capture, ease of ingress and egress, and security.