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IT’S VERY LIKELY you would have come across Eventbrite at one point or another.
The online ticketing company is practically ubiquitous for those organising events, be it professional or amateur, and after opening up new offices in Dublin and processing a billion dollars this year from ticket sales, it continues to grow.
Yet its co-founders, Kevin and Julia Hartz and Renaud Visage, show no signs of stopping anytime soon.
For Kevin Hartz, the company’s CEO, the aim is for Eventbrite to be to ticketing what Google is to search and Facebook is to connecting people online, and properly tapping into mobile plays a key role.
“There’s a lot of development to be done on the mobile side for both the organiser and the customer,” says Hartz. “A significant part of the business now is transactions and discovery on mobile [which are] two very exciting areas.”
And this push on mobile is a major area for it to tap into. Its latest app update, which practically allows organisers to create and run events purely through their smartphone or tablet, reflects this approach.
It’s an obvious move, and one that all tech companies have been focusing on for the past few years, but Eventbrite has been gradually edging towards a mobile-first experience.
While ticketing revenue is the main reason for this, the other area that could pay dividends for it is discovery.
While most users would go into the app to load up a ticket or check what events they’re attending, the range of events featured on it means there’s real potential for it to succeed here.
It’s something that Eventbrite is keeping a close eye on as more people use the app to find similar events, but Hartz admits that it’s “very, very difficult to succeed” in this field.
“We’ve seen the early prospects of it and that’s just by amassing customers, we have 1.1 million active events, not just published events, and with that critical mass, discovery begins. But we have to nurture and build a product that consumers have that habit to come back to the discovery.”
At the same time, ensuring that it’s a place that people can trust and that means ensuring that spam is kept to a minimum. While the problem of spam might seem a bit strange, considering the nature of the service, the potential for it to be abused is higher than you would expect. It’s a growing problem with Hartz describing it as “a cat and mouse game.”
“Even early on, because we have such a high page rank, [Google content] and we have the ability to send out thousands of invitations or reach different people, it’s used for nefarious purposes such as spamming folks to committing fraud and [credit cards on the system] so these are the challenges at scale, even as a startup, one has to wrestle with.”
While the core of the service is structurally sound, one area that has separated Eventbrite from similar companies is the amount of resources it’s dedicated towards customer services.
For Julia Hartz, the company’s president, it all comes down to understanding customers and discovering what they want. As the company grew, the importance on keeping this level of care was changed regularly, and even now, the company continues to experiment with different approaches.
“We’ve had our own challenges in scaling [customer service]… but each time we hit an inflection point, we reassess and scope out the best way to achieve the level of delightedness our customers have come to enjoy from Eventbrite. We test, analyze, optimize and iterate – it’s an ongoing process.”
One experiment that is ongoing is offering four-hour shifts to its customer service staff, allowing them to choose how their day shapes up.
So far, the results are positive, but the ultimate aim is providing the best customer service possible. If the staff are happy, then they will do more to help customers and for Julia, that’s what makes Eventbrite the company it is today.
“Above and beyond customer service is the heart of Eventbrite,” she says. “If we didn’t have that, we wouldn’t have made it this far.”
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The longer it takes the more interest AIB will have to pay won’t they?
The bailout is bigger than 21 Billion, the low interest rates and DIRT @ 41% are not taken into account.
True Martin but the more interest they have to pay , the longer it will take for them to get back to profitability.
Future tax on profits written off against taxpayer covered debts.
Profits earned for a large part by charging crazy customers fees to those that bailed them out.
Investment ?!! More like theft !!
Woohoo we’ll all be rich again. I’ve an option on some apartments in Bulgaria if anyone’s interested?
Bulgaria is old news Kim, Cape Verde is where its at, the new Canaries!… Ryan Air will be flying there soon. Yer man from Cork that knows about the money is selling them!
Brendan oil own fake is it ?
I like your style Ronan, just for that I’ll throw in a hot tub.
Brendan Investments …come on now people keep up ….
The Irish taxpayer paid out €21 Billion to bail out the Bank, then the senior bailed the pension fund with over €1.5 Billion, they retired on huge Pensions. Then they closed the pension to new members. The tax payer is paying 1000 staff salaries of over €100,000. Tax payers are taken to the cleaners by the AIB. You would want to be a gxxxxxxe to Bank with them.
In 1984, AIB was bailed out, at a cost of £400 million to the Irish taxpayer, when its subsidiary (ICI) collapsed. The following year AIB paid out a dividend to its shareholders, while still in-hoc to the taxpayer.
Less than 25 years later AIB was back, cap in hand, for another draw down.
As from the last budget, it would appear, the government will, now, be incentivising even greater incompetence and negligence through its revised taxation policy.
I despise that bloody bank, really actively despise it, I have more respect for a junkie thief than I have for anyone working for it.
Saw that in the paper today, Martin. I nearly choked on me sandwich. 1000 AIB staff on over €100,000. Nothing has changed, these people live in a different world, on our money and nobody seems to care.
All the sheeple red arrowing me- the type that doff their cap to their “betters”
A bankrupt state in tatters because of AIB- generations enslaved to paying for this God awful mess and these sad sacks red arrow someone pointing out how despicable this bank is- third time being bailed out by the tax payers and it’s these clowns attitude will see them bankrupt us again.
Anybody that owes the AIB money shouldn’t pay it until they give all that money back to the taxpayers
jaysus!
yep – this is a brilliant idea and will definitely help the borrower, the lender and the State finances all in one go.
I look forward to the next economic marvel from you Denise.
Well we’ll keep it so until you do – all of it ! not 75% ……” there’s a big bonus for ye lads and a few share options Isn’t the Irish public really stupid”,
ALL OF IT !
A fraction of this €21b would fix our water system and therefore no need for any Irish Water charges
That’s like €4.5k for each citizen. That would give the local economy some boost. Can I expect a cheque in the post?
Too f***ing late AIB the people have already had to suffer from your mess
Well they could start by returning the €18 they stole from my account, which f***ed up a direct debit payment.
If we get double digits billions back from the bank we will be doing well. AIB isn’t worth 21 billion.
The big swing is the taking back the provisions for bad loans which were the worse worse case. That’s why they made big losses as they had to put huge money aside and now they don’t need it so they can take some and call it a profit.
But that’s a short term thing as the economy improves and losses reduce. They still haven’t shown they can make money long term.
IF I was a sausage I’d dance at the crossroads with a pink tutu on, while reciting the government ignored out of copyright amhran na bfhiann backwards on a bicycle !
What about some decking Kim, a hot tub and some decking and im in!! I already have one in Kusadasi.
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It’s about time we took our fingers out of our holes and marched on the banks think about what they done to this country and how easy they got away with it . FFs Ireland’s paying 42% of the over all debt of the eu, so how dose the smallest end up paying the most
Bing!
So how much will my bank shares be worth by then…??
As Paul said they will be worth “Bing”
I have got to be the worlds lousiest fairy.
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