Online Ticket Seller Eventbrite Grows U.K. Ticket Sales By 115% A Year On From Local Launch

Only this summer we reported online ticket seller Eventbrite had sold a total of more than $1 billion worth of tickets. Today the company has revealed details of its year-old push into the U.K. market — announcing it’s shifted a total of four million tickets for more than 100,000 events since launching a localized .co.uk version of its ticket platform in September last year.

While ticket buyers can still make purchases through the Eventbrite.com website, its strategy for growth has been to launch localized versions of its platform — such as Eventbrite.co.uk and Eventbrite.de — to take account of language differences and varying payment systems in different markets.

The company said ticket sales in the U.K. have grown by 115% since last year’s local launch, while the number of events on its platform has more than doubled (107% increase). To further underline how localization has driven increased growth in the U.K. market, it said that since the .co.uk launch, U.K. ticket sales in the last year have accounted for more than half of the tickets sold in the U.K. since Eventbrite was founded — all the way back in 2006.

Further bolstering the .co.uk launch, Eventbrite recruited a U.K. sales team in January, and added a dedicated marketing function in May. But Marion Gamel, head of EMEA marketing for Eventbrite, said the company has benefitted most from strong brand awareness in the U.K. market. “Most of the growth we’re seeing in the U.K. market at the moment is organic growth,” she told TechCrunch.

“London has long been a top five city for Eventbrite in terms of users, and the response we’ve seen since our recent focus on the UK has been incredibly promising,” added Kevin Hartz, CEO of Eventbrite, in a statement.

It added that gross ticket sales also grew more than 80% during the past year. Back in June the company announced the launch of localized version of its platform for Germany and the Netherlands. It now has 14 localized platforms, and currently employs 200 people in both its U.S. and European headquarters.

Last year Eventbrite raised a $50 million round of financing — bulking out the $30 million it had already raised since being founded in France (it’s headquartered in San Francisco).

Eventbrite’s growth has not been mirrored by other ticket seller startups — for example Xing’s Amiando has effectively been crowded out of the ticket sales space to focus on selling event management software.