PitchBook<\/a> seems to indicate it\u2019s just under $200 million. In this latest $65 million, the \u201cmajority\u201d is equity with some debt, although the company is not breaking out the actual proportions.<\/p>\nDiscovery has been the name of the game for years in areas like e-commerce, social and media platforms. It\u2019s the key to unlocking how users can have any hope of navigating (and ultimately engaging with\/buying\/watching\/clicking\/tapping) their way through the vast amounts of choice and content presented to them. One of the main dichotomies in that game of discovery has been around the area of graphs: whether platforms have built their algorithms around their own data, or whether they use cues from other platforms to inform that in some way.<\/p>\n
Hutcheon has told me in the past that it\u2019s built its own datasets from the ground up itself \u2014 no tapping into Facebook or other social platforms to gain an understanding of what a user might like. That meant that the startup took years to build its platform and finally launch, but it\u2019s an approach that it is sticking with for the most part.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe largely use our own dataset to give recommendations,\u201d he said. \u201cWe use Spotify and Apple Music scanning to give us a bit of a headstart but the correlation between listening data and live attendance data isn\u2019t as strong as you may think. You may listen to techno all day, but you want to watch a band. Or vice versa.\u201d<\/p>\n
As such, he added, almost half of all Dice ticket sales come through personalized recommendations.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt took us so much longer to get the Discovery Algorithms effective since we didn\u2019t use those other data sources, but the investment paid off. We\u2019re very happy we took that path,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Interestingly, while a lot of startups, and investors, are chasing the tail of AI right now \u2014 specifically newer developments like generative AI \u2014 Hutcheon declined to comment on whether that\u2019s something that Dice might eventually incorporate into its own platform. You can see how something like a conversation might spur more interaction between a would-be customer and converting that person into a ticket buyer, but that\u2019s not something that Dice is building, at least not something that it is discussing.<\/p>\n
Rather its AI focus is more on how that could be used for its business customers \u2014 that is, the venues, producers and musicians who are hoping to connect with fans.<\/p>\n
In addition to discovery recommendations, \u201cThe other benefit of the data we generate with fan recommendations is that we have amazing forecasting tools,\u201d he said adding that Dice is working on tools for artists, venues and promoters to use that data next year.<\/p>\n
There are a number of hugely dominant platforms for events and ticketing in the market these days, and the story has been one of consolidation over the years, with more innovative startups bringing something new (or a new audience) to the table getting snapped up by the bigger players. And there is also a lot of hate for these platforms over the fees that they charge on top of already-expensive tickets. That speaks to both some opportunity but also a lack of it in a market where the economics feel like they may never be in favor of smaller players, nor consumers themselves.<\/p>\n
But there is a gap there, says Pincus.<\/p>\n
\u201cMost ticketing companies are transaction providers for venue ticket sellers. DICE is a user platform for ticket buyers. Its relationship is with the fans who go to clubs and taste driven festivals worldwide,\u201d said Pincus. \u201cPeople who love to go to shows are the most important consumers in music, especially at a time when the traditional forms of audience engagement \u2013 radio, conventional media, DSP algorithms \u2013 are being challenged by shifting consumer behavior. DICE matters to fans, who are more connected to the platform each day that goes by. DICE is a gateway to music fans, a position that will allow them to build on their leading ticket business in ways that others cannot.\u201d Pincus (who I should point out is the son of the co-founder of Warburg Pincus) is joining the board with this round.<\/p>\n
Hutcheon\u2019s mantra of \u201cHappy Fan, Happy Dice\u201d, he said, plays out in the fact that the company has built \u201ctrust\u201d with its users who look to it to discover interesting events on repeat. \u201cHabits are important and fans are used to using Dice to buy tickets, the same way you go to a music streaming service to listen,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s difficult to break those habits, particularly because listening to music is more of an ear thing.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
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Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Live, in-person activity has come back with force in the wake of years of living with Covid-19, and a London startup that built an events tech business is today announcing funding to capitalise on that. Dice, an events discovery and ticketing platform, has raised $65 million, funding that it will be using to grow in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":33573,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-33572","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tech"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33572","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33572"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33572\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33573"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33572"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33572"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33572"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}