Update October ’19 —시작이다
A traction-packed, juicy blog with a little something for everyone.
Welcome back! Recapping this past month felt like recapping half a year, you’ll see why below.
We have a lot to share — so we’ll divide it up into three, easy segments:
1.) Ticketing News
A major milestone, ADE recap, and other big developments on the ticketing front.2.) In Other News
Some smaller, but not unimportant bits and pieces of news and developments we want to share.3.) Japan (& Korea)
Blockchain developer Kasper shares the experiences from DevCon2019 in Osaka, and where we stand with Klaytn.
Ticketing news
The first Korean events are here!
We are excited to announce that, just last week, the very first ticketing pilot was conducted with a local ticketing partner in South Korea. Over the past years, we have been in an increasing number of talks and developments about the further adoption of our ticketing solution in the South Korean market, the results of which are now beginning to see the daylight.
Needless to say, making our solution compatible for a completely different culture and market takes a lot of time and effort. We have spent a lot of both in drawing up and executing the steps necessary to get to this milestone.
Firstly, we needed to make sure our system was applicable for the Korean market, which meant a series of discussions and finetune-sessions were organized, to make sure all features were completely understood and compatible.
Lost in translation
Translations aren’t just necessary for our tech and market fit — we quite literally had to translate all aspects of our front- and backend so that Korean developers could understand our solution and make their own, relevant version of it.
A language barrier in business is one thing, but when it comes to actual development and very specific commands and functions, there is a mission critical necessity for accuracy.
We have translated crucial components of our system as well as demo’s and marketing material, all with the aim of providing a smooth-as-possible introduction to our system.
We have also implemented a system that makes translating to any language (and maintaining an updated translation) scalable and easy.
So that’s why…
When engaged in talks with multiple parties at a variety of stages, there comes a time & need to conduct due diligence.
For us, this has meant that our team has gone over to Korea on multiple instances to meet with prospects and parties who have shown a serious desire and potential for traction.
We have developed several important and solid connections from these trips, which have sped up the adoption and development processes, as well as provided valuable connections and in-routes to interesting leads and scenarios down the road.
What’s next?
This pilot is a big step towards international adoption and will be followed by many others. We are providing the technical support needed by parties abroad to gain experience and scale up, just as GUTS has done in The Netherlands.
We are excited about the future of bringing honest ticketing to South Korea, and, eventually, more parts of Asia.
The focus of GET Protocol is to gain rapid international adoption and deliver the framework for bespoke and efficient ticketing solutions all over the world. In order to achieve this, we have always been geared towards making an innovative product that serves actual client demand, instead of spending time, energy and money on a hollow shouting match in the crypto world.
Every day it is becoming clearer that this was the best way to go, as we now reach this significant milestone of international usage and we see what tangible possibilities lie ahead for us. It also means that in a period where other crypto projects are unraveling and facing the harsh reality of not having nearly the traction that they need to survive. We do, and now we plan on letting the world know about it. More will follow in due time.
ADE Recap
The madness of Amsterdam Dance Event has come and gone — as Amsterdam licks its wounds and the yellow flags disappear, we finally have the chance to look back at the jam-packed frenzy that was ADE.
Lots of parties, lots of learning
Having over ten thousand (new) people from more than 25 countries sell, resell, share, gift, and use our tickets was a new level of application and usage for us.
Over 11.000 tickets were sold, all to be processed at 12 events within four days. This rate of events taking place was a first for us, and required scaling and creativity from development, scanning and support teams, which is exactly what we are going for.
The dynamic, young and international ADE audience was also a very welcome change from other audience groups that we have come to know from many theater shows or concert. Different audiences means different wishes and behaviour, as we noticed in the following metric:
For our ADE events, between 19–42% (varied per event) of ticket holders resold their tickets. That is a huge number, way higher than any averages we have seen in the hundreds of events we have ticketed previously.
This can be for any reason of course: last-minute changes of partyplans (due to releases of line-ups at other parties for example), cancelled or adjusted travelplans, or just some good ol’ fashioned failed attempts at scalping.
The hectic nature of the hundreds of events also delivered some valuable insights directly from ticket buyers that have helped us evaluate our next steps as far as development and user experience. The big one being that we want to give ticket holders more control in the ways they can sell their tickets, as well as improve how this is displayed and communicated. We are glad to have learned these lessons.
Decentralisation = bad (wait, hear me out)
As devoted followers of either GET or GUTS will probably know, GUTS Tickets has taken pride in being able to eradicate the possibility of tickets to be resold on any external secondary platforms. Here’s a gentle reminder if you were not yet aware of this:
Unfortunately, ADE regulations require that a percentage of all tickets for the events that took part in the conference were to be put up for sale through the ADE website that made use of a different ticketing company that doesn’t regulate reselling.
These tickets could then, of course, be resold through any of the many platforms that scalpers enjoy using because they can make infinite monies from them. In some cases, certain folks use these platforms to take money from people without even sending any tickets to them — a.k.a. fraud, which we are all very concerned about, but somehow lack the time to actively prevent.
Pretending that scalpers and frauds won’t take advantage of the possibilities provided to them is a ridiculously naive opinion, proven absolutely incorrect time and time again.
It’s expressed most often by those who have already achieved their target sales numbers and no longer require to pretend to care about consumers.
Personal bitterness about the state of the ticketing world aside, this forced distribution leads to situations such as the one where tickets for an event that was originally ticketed by GUTS, were up for sale through four different services and platforms — which of course was very confusing.
It also meant that some people who bought their tickets through GUTS saw tickets for the very same event on sale through TicketSwap for 20% below the original purchase price, while they couldn’t change the price they wanted to sell their tickets for, due to the way GUTS works with one price for tickets in the primary and secondary markets— which of course was very confusing.
Furthermore, it meant that some people bought tickets for these events at the ADE website through a different ticketing provider, who then came to GUTS with support questions because they read everywhere that GUTS was the ticketing partner for the event — which of course was, yes, absolutely confusing.
We are proud of our successful solution to ticket fraud and scalping, but of course constantly search for real-life feedback, which arrives through instances and experiences — such as the ones laid out above — to make our system easy and enjoyable for everyone who uses it.
This helps us now adjust our focus and development goals in the (near) future that completely suit the wishes for ticket holders of all demographics and behavior. We can’t wait.
By the way, adoption much?
Jochem Myjer charity sale makes nearly €100K in one night
Popular Dutch comedian Jochem Myjer wanted to do a special charity event to raise money for a foundation centered around finding a cure for narcolepsy — a disease that affects him personally as his daughter suffers from it. Over the past months, Jochem has opened up about his daughter’s struggle and what it means to live life with this disease.
This exposure was followed-up with the announcement of a one-of-a-kind event; a special edition of his popular Adem In, Adem Uit tour, to raise money for the Wakker Worden Wakker Worden (Wake Up Wake up) foundation.
For this sale, the GUTS seating system was used to assign custom pricing to newly formed sections. The highest-priced tickets also included the chance to come up on stage with Jochem for a selfie after the show.
Jochem and his management had total control over the sale, as they set the custom prices and monitored the sale in real-time for desired results and feedback from ticket buyers in the shape of demand.
To Jochem’s own amazement, the sale for this one show made nearly €100.000. This achievement also made it to several news outlets, like this one and this one.
Jochem also posted on his socials about the event and its result.
These type of ‘unusual’ sales are not only exciting for us because of the obvious good they do for the world, but also because they provide data and results about consumer behaviour.
Events like these with the specific goal of generating an optimal amount of money for a charity also provides a valuable usecase for potential clients who are looking to do the same, or it might inspire other artists to follow in Jochem’s footsteps.
Kensington chooses GUTS for album release party
Without a doubt one of the most popular current bands in The Netherlands and quickly making a name abroad, Kensington has been on our radar pretty much since we started selling tickets.
This past month we finally got the chance to ticket an event of theirs, when the sale started for the release party of their upcoming album, titled ‘Time’.
The band proved their popularity; as all tickets were sold-out within 4 minutes.
We have been in touch with the band and their management for years. Both sides have expressed a desire to work together for a long time. Unfortunately, goodwill and a strong desire from an artist or event organizer doesn’t mean anything with the ticketing market being what it is. Long-running contracts and harsh demands from venues / labels / any other parties.
That’s why we are glad to finally get this first ‘pilot’ of sorts on the books. Now we hope to build out this collaboration in the future!
Close, but no Eurovision cigar
We were honored and very excited to be invited to come pitch for the Eurovision Songfestival, which is being held in Holland in 2020.
Unfortunately, we did not end up being selected as the ticketing partner, mainly due to a lack of proven track record. (Which is somewhat fair — but still, come on...)
It was a great sign to be invited to go up against the big ticketing companies (there were four others in the race) that have been around for ages and be able to put up a good fight.
This was one of many signs we have been getting as of recently that GUTS is now a force to be reckoned with in the ticketing space. We are now officially playing with the big boys, all of which ticket at least 10 million tickets per year, some way more.
We are now only hungrier to prove ourselves further and start taking business from the giants that have ruled the ticketing world for too long.
We can’t wait.
In other news…
Some smaller bits and pieces of news:
PwC features GUTS
GUTS is featured in the latest ‘Entertainment & Media Outlook’ from PwC. (PricewaterhouseCoopers) In this Outlook, PwC makes projections for the next five years on several sectors, one of which is blockchain, for which we were interviewed.
You can find the item here:
Or, for the lazy ones:
CEO Maarten is a judge for Klaytn Horizon
As should be well-known if you know about GET Protocol, we are an initial service partner of the Korean Klaytn project. Besides exploring the possibilities for using their blockchain for the registration of our smart tickets, there are also other side activities. That’s why our CEO Maarten is judging for the Klaytn Horizon initiative, and more involvements and cooperations of the sorts can be expected.
About the contest:
Klaytn Horizon invites developers from all around the world to build various BApps on Klaytn in a combined effort to bring blockchain mass adoption to fruition. Feel free to build a BApp to serve an industry of your choice, ranging from contents to entertainment, healthcare, finance, commerce, payment, lifestyle, and technology, just to name a few. There is no limit to what you can innovate, there is no limit to what you can build.
If you want to know more about this initiative, you can check it out here.
No Man’s Land 2019 goes for GUTS
NML is a yearly music conference that includes workshops and performances.
GUTS was mentioned by The Next Web…
…as a proof that Amsterdam is a hotspot for blockchain development.
Tickets for stadium shows Guus Meeuwis now linked at Nu.nl
Nu.nl is one of the biggest news sites of The Netherlands, with its own ticketing page, which now features a link to Guus’ stadium shows!
The thing with TicketSwap
An interesting article about the massive amount of scalping that occurs on TicketSwap from ‘people’ (at least accounts, probably companies) that sell insane amounts of tickets on Ticketswap, all for a 20% mark-up.
Some accounts on the reselling service have sold more than 10.000 tickets, which obviously doesn’t come close to being a normal person who was a little under the weather and then decided to sell their ticket to John Mayer, but then felt better and bought a new ticket, but then had a bad coughing fit and sold their ticket, etcetera, etcetera. This makes TicketSwap huge amounts of money of course, as they make more than 10% over every transaction.
The service acknowledges this occurrence and the negative effect it has on their image. Check out the full article below. (It’s behind a paywall, but suggested reading nonetheless.)
Devcon 2019 recap & Klaytn update
By Kasper Keunen, Blockchain Developer.
Each year Ethereum organizes a developer conference where technical issues such as scaling and consensus are discussed. This year the event took place Osaka, Japan. As we have been working with the smart contracting tech stack for a few years now, we (Ivo, Stavros, Joao and myself) decided to join this year’s edition.
Regardless of the blockchain layer, Ethereums progress and execution touches all. As the largest and most developed smart contracting blockchain the ideas and technologies they explore at the bleeding edge influence the whole vertical. GET Protocol is positioning itself for a move to the Klaytn blockchain in the future.
At the panel discussion at Devcon it became evident that real scaling (both in throughput as in cost per transaction) is at least 2 years out. This timeline is something we (and lots of others) have been suspecting for a while. We found Klaytn almost a year back, after having realized this.
Account structure of Klaytn
Klaytn is a fork of Ethereum’s Istanbul code base, meaning there is a lot of overlap in tech and the underlying concepts. In order to scale now, Klaytn uses a form of reputation based federated consensus. Essentially swapping decentralization for scalability.
One of the innovations put forward by Klaytn is in the way they have structured their accounts/wallet topology.
Klaytn & GET integration
Why this account structure is especially interesting for the GET Protocol (Stoolbox in particular) will be explained in our developer documentation. During Devcon, Klaytn presented on this exact subject, we are excited to get started!
That’s our update this time! We are already itching to share the next one, as the rate of exciting developments only seems to be ramping up.
More about GET Protocol
Any questions or want to know more about what we do? Join our active Telegram community for any questions you might have, read our whitepaper, visit the website, join the discussion on the GET Protocol Reddit. Or get yourself a smart event ticket in our sandbox environment. Download the GUTS Tickets app on iOS or Android.
