Aggregating the world of events
The funnel, the box, and the sieve.
There we are, sitting on our desks wondering where we should go on vacation this year.
It is likely that when we book your holiday or business trip we will use services like AirBnB, Cheapflights, Expedia, or TripAdvisor. We will spend time comparing ticket and flights options easily and cost-effective.
It will be glorious.
Meta-search has rapidly emerged as a mega-trend in recent years to become one of the leading methods for consumers to find the cheapest deals for flight or hotel accommodations resulting in significant changes to the distribution landscape for hotels and airlines.
Globally there are many suppliers for this type of service. They almost seem magical in producing an endless list of wonderful travel options to spend time on.
So I was wondering : Why does the same thing not exist for events?
Over 400 million people regularly go to the more than 3 million events every year. So a market is definitely there. Maybe it is because most of us don’t usually plan events the same way we plan our vacations. Why might that be ?
A sample of 100,000 events from our global event database suggest that events are commonly non-recurring in nature and last less than 3 hours. For US events specifically, 2 out of 3 events were free. And, if there was a fee, it averaged at around US$54. Which was higher than expected but still far beyond the money and time investment you would pay for a flight and hotel package.
So it would seem that due to the comparably small time and monetary commitment to go to events people don’t feel a similar amount of commitment to and at the same time receive satisfaction from the gravity of their choice.
My hypothesis: A service that aggregates a list of soon starting events in close proximity has a lot of market potential.
From a technical point of view, what would it take to create a service that magically conjures events for you to drop!in to in close proximity around you?
A funnel, a box, and a sieve
The event aggregating service, and I would assume all aggregation services are similarly structured, has three main components. A funnel, a box, and a sieve. These three components are operating on a strictly defined process supported by a sophisticated rule-based decision-making.
The funnel device is connecting to the data providers. It is usually a function of a push and pull towards an application programming interface (API) that collects the data from internal databases and external API partners.
The data provided by external partners (EventBrite, Meetup.com, etc) varies widely in quality, scope, and structure. So the first standard that needs to be established is a common data model for events and then you have to create a translation from the provided data towards it. This is the box. With every new addition of new data providers there is a risk to y0ur standard model. Which then again triggers changes in all other API requests.
Data-quality is a key-value driver
The mapping and interfaces create a large amount of transaction data. This allows to measure and improve the data quality.
It is easy to understand that data-quality is one of the key-value drivers in the process as the complexity to maintain it grows exponentially.
Hands down, who wants to read out-of date and spammy pseudo-event notifications? When we build the first prototypes it was interesting to see how many crappy spam events were out there selling all kinds of goods and services (Viagra!!!). But that is comparably easy to filter out. Among the problem harder to debug were broken unicode, incorrect map information, wether or not to show recurring events, and identifying events where the registration had already expired (we are still working on this).
The sieve, as the last component in the three-tiered process, is directly driving the user experience in the application. Based on the user’s preferences and search query the service has to generate a suitable result set. This newly generated information then has to be presented to the data consumer in an efficient and effective way so we as the information consumers can find then find the event we want in less time than comparing the several other platforms (Eventbrite, Peatix, Sistic, Ticketmaster, etc) manually.
Enjoy the simplicity to just use one service rather than comparing several sites.This matters because great content within the right context with faster speed and convenience is great.
We use a statistical scorecard that is calibrated against customer interactions to deliver relevant content. If the average engagement rate of a certain group of customers go down, it shows that the events delivered are not relevant. This direct customer engagement model is game changer because now we are in round one in the fight for the customer interface in the event space.
The fight for the customer interface.
Aggregation services like drop!in are working on a thin layer that sit on top of vast event supply systems of events from several provider where the costs are and interface easily with a huge number of people where the money is.
Hypothesis : The one who controls what the customer sees controls the world.
Question : How to monetize this?
There are commonly two models. The merchant model and the agency model.
In the Merchant Model event organizers sell last-minute tickets to the service provider (us) in bulk at discounted or wholesale prices. We then sell them to customers at a markup price.
This is the most commonly used model, and it benefits both parties.
The Agency Model is a commission-based model wherein event organizers give us commissions based on business provided. In this model, the event organizers list their events, and we don’t have to buy anything up front. This is beneficial for event organizers, as it gives them a better cost control per platform penetration.
As consumers are used to having the Internet in the palm of their hands and want the information that they are looking for quicker than ever before, less and less consumers, want or feel the need to crawl through several sites for the best offer, they expect to find it all in one place and for events, that place is now :
