| Eventbrite | |
|---|---|
| Founded | San Francisco, CA (2006) |
| Founders | Kevin Hartz, Julia Hartz, Renaud Visage |
| Headquarters | San Francisco, CA |
| Area Served | Worldwide |
| Employees | 150-200 |
| Website | www.eventbrite.com |
Contents |
Eventbrite is a website that allows event organizers to plan, set up ticket sales and promote events of any size and publicize them across Facebook, Twitter and other social-networking tools directly from the site's interface.[1] It also enables attendees to find and purchase tickets to these events. Founded in 2006 by Kevin Hartz, Julia Hartz and Renaud Visage, Eventbrite is headquartered in San Francisco, CA.[2] According to an article in the New York Times, the company is hoping to sell $400 million worth of tickets in 2011, almost double the amount sold in 2010.[3] The Eventbrite website says it “is for anyone planning or attending an event. We empower event organizers to become more efficient and effective when bringing people together. And people everywhere are searching Eventbrite to discover great events that matter to them.” Eventbrite generates revenue by charging organizers a fee of 2.5% of the ticket price plus $0.99 cents per ticket sold.[2] Eventbrite also allows event organizers to set up free events. Eventbrite does not charge any fee for free events.
Eventbrite was founded by Kevin and Julia Hartz along with Renaud Viasge. Kevin Hartz is the current Co-Founder and CEO of Eventbrite. Prior to his position at the company, Kevin was involved with Paypal and the Co-Founder and CEO of Xoom Corporation, an international money transfer company.[4] Julia Hartz, wife of Kevin, was raised in Santa Cruz, CA. After studying broadcasting at Pepperdine University, Julia became a creative executive at FX Network in Los Angeles. Soon after the two became engaged, Julia moved to the Bay Area and helped co-found Eventbrite.Today, Julia serves as the President of Eventbrite.[4] Renaud Viasge, the CTO of Eventbrite, built the Eventbrite site platform.Visage started his career as a consultant with Geomatrix Consultants. He later became the Director of Engineering with Zing Networks. He has a Master of Engineering from Cornell University and from Ecole Centrale de Lyon in France.[4]
A study conducted by Eventbrite examining the monetary impact of sharing events on social networking platforms concluded that one “like” of an event on Facebook drove $1.34 of ticket sales. One share of an event on LinkedIn drove $0.90 and one share on Twitter drove $0.43.[5] The study dove deeper into when sharing and “liking” events proved most profitable. The study stated that a “post-purchase” share on Facebook drives 20% more ticket sales per share than a pre-purchase share”.[5] Furthermore, 60% of those in the study shared an event post-purchase, while only 40% did before the purchase.[5]
On March 18, 2011 Eventbrite raised $50 million in Series E Financing led by Tiger Global.[6] This brought their total funding to just under $80 million.[6] Previous funding involved firms including Sequoia Capital, DAG Ventures and Tenaya Capital.[7]
Eventbrite has developed two applications targeted towards event organizers. The mobile app, “Easy Entry"[8] is available for both iPhone and Android. “Easy Entry” allows organizers of live events to see the number of tickets sold to a particular event and the number in attendance. It offers several ways to check in attendees: scrolling through a list of registered attendees, searching by name and by scanning the barcode of the attendee’s ticket. The mobile app also links back to the user’s page on Eventbrite providing post-event details and an attendee summary report.[9] The newest application called "At The Door"[10] is described as a mobile box office. It allows the user to check-in attendees, as well as purchase tickets and process credit cards on-site.[11]
Eventbrite’s API allows for the development of widgets and apps to be utilized alongside of Eventbrite’s core product. Currently, Eventbrite has partnerships with Salesforce, MailChimp and Wordpress among others.[12] Welcoming the innovation of third party developers, Eventbrite allows these potential partners to monetize using their API key.[13]