San Francisco-based ticketing company Eventbrite has opened a new office in the United Kingdom, as the company looks to expand its presence in international markets.
The company already receives 20 percent of its business from countries outside the United States, and Eventbrite is looking to grow that percentage significantly with the London office.
“We have always learned from observing our customers,” Eventbrite co-founder Kevin Hartz said in a statement. “Their sharing behaviors influenced us to become early partners with Facebook. And now, in watching the activity across our platform throughout the UK, it is clear that it’s time for Eventbrite to focus on serving customers beyond the United States.”
Kristina Gibson, Eventbrite’s group product manager in charge of internationalization efforts, told TicketNews that the company had customers in 147 countries in 2010.
“The UK was a natural first step along this journey, as we have a loyal user base in the UK,” Gibson said. “London is also one of our top cities, so we wanted to develop a local team to support our localized product and showcase amazing events in and around the city.”
And more growth in the global market is coming, with plans to begin serving fans in Canada, Australia and New Zealand, but not necessarily with new offices in each country.
“Our goal is to deliver a localized experience for our users in these markets,” Gibson said. “Based on feedback from our early adopters, the team is developing new features and local formatting to create a tailored experience.”
In addition to expanding into more international markets, Eventbrite plans to offer access to event pages in languages beyond the current English, French, French-Canadian and Spanish.
But geographical growth is not the only thing in the works. Earlier this year, the company added media and music veterans to its board of directors as part of a larger plan to develop unique ticketing opportunities.
Eventbrite also is offering new features to users in order to make the purchasing and selling processes more efficient and rewarding.
This summer, the company released an iPad application that replaces the cash box for event organizers. Additionally, the company recently partnered with Thinglink on an initiative that allows users to buy tickets directly through interactive web images.
