Online ticketing provider Wantickets has announced an exclusive partnership with nightlife app Discotech that will allow users to purchase tickets directly in the mobile app on their Android or iPhone devices.
Founded in 2012 by three UC Berkeley alumni who were tired of being exploited by club promoters, Discotech serves as a one-stop “virtual concierge” that helps users find events, buy tickets, book tables, and RSVP for guest lists. Taking commission from ticket and bottle service sales and a per head fee for guest lists, the app boasts more than $1 million in total bookings and 26,000 registered users.
Wantickets has emerged as the leading North American ticket provider for the nightlife and dance music space since its 1999 founding, selling tickets to more than 1,000 venues on the continent, and drawing more than 1 million unique monthly visitors.
“Wantickets is a huge company with a lot of industry relationships and inventory, but they don’t have a mobile presence,” says Ian Chen, Discotech CEO. “A lot of people are switching over to mobile for purchasing, and we can help them fill that gap as their mobile arm. The partnership just makes a lot of sense.”
Wantickets CEO Diego Carlin says his company’s experience in the dance music space helped him recognize that partnership with new players would be key to continued success.
“We had a mobile web experience for many years and haven’t really had that necessity to build an app, but we saw the marketplace shifting radically,” says Diego Carlin, Wantickets CEO. “For Discotech, it was seeing where our evolution of ticketing fits within an app-only consumer.”
The partnership reflects an emerging trend in favor of mobile ticketing, particularly in nightlife and VIP services where apps like Tableist, NightlifePro, Outfit Miami, Nightup and Squadup have competed for market share.
Last month, online electronic music magazine Resident Advisor launched an app with native ticketing, while Songkick merged with Crowdsurge to integrate its ticketing platform into its app. A Harris Interactive Service Bureau study found that 52% of EDM fans bought tickets to an event on their smartphones in 2014.
Carlin says Discotech’s streamlined design and savvy team helped it stand out from a competitive field of mobile nightlife apps.
“You don’t need to burn a lot of calories to use it and we like that,” says Carlin. “The guys behind the company were why we got involved with them. We liked where they’re headed. Everyone else who’s in their space is still trying to figure it out.”
While Discotech is presently live in Los Angeles, Las Vegas, San Francisco, and Miami, Carlin sees expansion to markets like New York, Chicago and Boston as inevitable.
“The market has grown in the past couple years for nightlife and specifically dance music because of the resurgence of DJ culture in the US,” he says. “Discotech have plans to do all of North America, and obviously through our network we can turn on a lot of lights overnight.”
Discotech can be downloaded for free at discotech.me. [Billboard]
