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Eventbrite's rise has happened in tandem with that of the experience economy at large. Both the consumer and enterprise event technology sectors have thrived in recent years, with mobile tools redefining how people research and buy tickets to events.

Eventbrite, which has long been considered the premier service for small consumer event planning, is headed to the stock market.

The event-ticketing platform will hold an initial public offering before the end of 2018, according to a new report from The Wall Street Journal. Details are scarce, with the company’s paperwork being filed confidentially, but the move signals the success of the event technology provider in an extremely crowded market.

An Eventbrite representative declined to comment on the news. Eventbrite has raised $332.3 million since it was founded in 2006, most recently raising a $134 million Series G round in September 2017 which placed its valuation well over $1 billion. The initial public offering was likely filed confidentially under a provision of the 2012 JOBS Act, using a method which was also used by Snapchat to avoid intense public scrutiny of its financials when it went public in 2016.

Eventbrite CEO Julia Hartz took the reins from her husband Kevin in 2016 after helping found the company and serving as president since its inception. She worked in the entertainment industry prior to founding Eventbrite, in management roles at FX Networks and MTV Networks.

The writing has been on the wall for a few years, and speculation mounted after Eventbrite acquired its top competitor Ticketfly from Pandora late last year for $200 million.

The move helped to further consolidate the online consumer event ticketing marketplace, after years of domination by Live Nation Entertainment. It has acquired a variety of other online ticketing businesses in Europe in recent years, aimed primarily at small organizations and independent music venues.

A huge part of Eventbrite’s success has been its simple and scalable business model; Eventbrite only charges a small percentage of sales and a per-ticket booking fee from event organizers while offering digital marketing and platform integration tools to customers.

Platforms like Eventbrite have developed easy-to-use tools for organizations as data-based insights become more important to event planners and marketers. Eventbrite also offers educational content for the budding event planner.

Its digital tools are intuitive, while its consumer-facing app provides a simple shopping environment for users. Eventbrite has also been at the forefront of exploring new marketing techniques, including ticket selling through social platforms.

Stay tuned for more once Eventbrite’s initial public offering becomes official.

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Tags: eventbrite, meetings, meetingsiq

Photo credit: Eventbrite co-founders Kevin and Julia Hartz at Eventbrite headquarters in San Francisco. Stefan Wieland / Eventbrite

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