Global ticketing platform Eventbrite has recently announced the acquisition of one of Europe’s largest self-service provider, Ticketscript, making it Europe's third largest ticketing platform.
The huge news has been backed up by the announcement that the San Francisco-founded company has launched Eventbrite Venue – the first fully integrated booking, operations and ticketing solutions for music venues.
Speaking to The Music, Australian General Manager, Phil Silverstone, said that they will seek opportunities Down Under following the European acquisition as they come up.
"Globally and in Australia… we absolutely have a really strong projectory organically," Silverstone said.
"The plan is to continue that, but where there is opportunities to supplement that, then we're always open to it. We have a really strong funding and, frankly, balance sheet, that allows us to do that sort of thing.
"That's opportunities that we'll continue to explore as they present. That's on the basis of,does it give us access to a market that would otherwise take us longer to build into? Does it give us technology that is unique? Or does it give us access to great talent that otherwise we couldn't get?"
Iconic Melbourne venue The Corner Hotel is just one of the venues that has signed with Eventbrite; a sign that more could follow soon.
"The beauty of the Eventbrite product is it does a really good job of meeting the needs of both the large and the small," Silverstone explains.
"Being able to bring on a partner like the Corner is a massive win for us and it's right in line with our strategy of growing in music specifically."
In recent times, some of Australia’s most revered festivals, such as Splendour In The Grass, have been purchased by ticketing giants like Live Nation. However, Silverstone tells The Music that the festival space is not something Eventbrite have plans for anytime soon.
"At our core I think what's been a real key to our success as a business is that we really focus on being the best ticketing platform we can be. Even where other companies that are in that space will try and either buy different parts of the value chain, or even extend that product offering for other solution sets, what we've done is focus on being the best ticketing platform that then is an open platform.
"The way Eventbrite works with its API is you can then connect all these other systems that allow you to run your business. In the music industry for example, that might be things like integrations to Facebook for your marketing and Songkick, rather than build out this full solution ourselves."
For more details on Eventbrite, click here.
