Skift Take

Despite the alignment between live events and the photos and stories from them shared on social media, no discovery or ticketing service has achieved close to the growth of the latter. The lack of success in the sector raises questions as to why YPlan was able to raise such a large fund, with a significant part of its business model still in transition.

Mobile events and ticketing marketplace YPlan recently raised a $24 million fundraising round led by previous backers Octopus Investments, Wellington Partners and General Catalyst and new investor Nokia Growth Partners, according to TechCrunch.

The mobile app presents events, which take place the same or next day as the search, curated by users’ location and interest. The latest round brings YPlan’s total funding to approximately $38 million following previous funding in June 2013 and December 2012.

The latest round of fundraising parallels a shift in business model from direct to indirect sales in which events organizers and venues upload and manage their own listings on the platform. This shift led to layoffs, primarily for the direct sales team, TechCrunch reported last week.

Thus far YPlan has not charged for postings, instead taking a small commission off each ticket purchase. The shift to a more hands-off sales model that places the burden of listing upkeep and promotion on the user is clearly one that’s hoped to increase revenue; therefore, it’s possible that additional charges for listings could also be introduced.

The company said it has grown more than 300 percent throughout the last year and now has more than one million downloads. There are approximately 1,000 event companies and venues that list paid events, information and tickets on the app. It is not currently ranked at the top of any Android or iOS app store category list.

Similar Startups

The funding is a feat when considering how much other event discovery startups have raised and fared after launch. The closest events listing startup, in terms of funding, is Sosh, which raised a total $16.3 million funding round. Local events engine SpinGo raised $2 million in May 2014 and event discovery app Fever raised $3 million in May 2014.

Others have made soft landings. Spindle and WillCall each raised approximately $2 million before getting acquired, by Twitter and Ticketfly respectively. For all of them, the challenge appears to be getting consumers to use their app with a great enough frequency.

A video trailer for YPlan is below:

smartphone

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Tags: events, funding

Photo credit: YPlan's app for iOS. Skift

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