Eventbrite says g'day to Australia with a freebie

Stephen Withers
Tuesday, 07 February 2012 12:12

Eventbrite has localised its ticketing platform for Australia, and is providing event organisers with an opportunity to try its services at no charge.

Eventbrite has provided a cloud-based self-service ticketing platform to event organisers for years, and growth in use by Australians - 400,000 tickets to 12,351 events in 739 towns and cities last year - has led to the launch of a localised site for Australia, which is one of the company's biggest markets outside the US.

Co-founder and president Julia Hartz told iTWire that localisation "gives the user a better experience" by catering for nuances of language, local preferences regarding date and time formats, and local payment options - the company plans to add Bpay to the current options of PayPal or credit card. [Update: a company spokesperson subsequently told iTWire that while Eventbrite plans to explore additional payment options, there are no firm plans to accept Bpay.]

But perhaps most importantly, www.eventbrite.com.au exposes local events to a local audience - "it's a really great way for people to discover [events]," she said.

A wide range of events are being ticketed through Eventbrite, Ms Hartz said, including classes and workshops, musical performances, and participant sports. So far, Australian events have been more likely to be educational than social, she observed.

For event organisers, Eventbrite provides a self-service approach to ticketing, low fees (2.5% of the ticket price plus 99c; no fee is involved for free tickets), paperless ticketing via the Eventbrite app, and multi-door admission via the EntryManager app. Both apps are available for iOS and Android.

To mark the launch of the Australian version of Eventbrite (and Valentine's Day), all fees are being waived for first-time users. "It's a great way for people to get to know the site," said Ms Hartz. The offer only applies during February 2012.