Hapz, the Singapore-based event and ticketing technology platform, is targeting launches in Malaysia, the Philippines and Indonesia after securing $500,000 (£390,000/€425,000) in new investment.
In an interview with the Straits Times newspaper, founders Lai Xin Chu and Kendrick Wong said the three Southeast Asia markets are appealing as they each have mature events sectors and high rates of online engagement.
Hapz provides end to-end services including event discovery, ticket sales, exclusive deals and customer support. The platform aggregates the top 100 events happening in Singapore, as well as providing customers with the opportunity to use a dynamic pricing system.
Hapz recently attracted $500,000 in a seed round led by Cocoon Capital and SPH Media Fund, meaning it has new secured around $680,000 in investment.
Wong said new markets and a wider range of events were two of its priorities.
“Right now, we’re looking at regional festivals and we’d like to bring them on board,” Wong said. “In terms of the countries that we’re headed to, we haven’t really firmed it up yet because we want to run a few experiments first before we decide, but I think Malaysia, the Philippines and Indonesia would be the top three likely choices that we’ll venture into first, because they have a pretty mature events space as well as the people there (who) are comfortable purchasing stuff online…
“There’s never really been a benchmark for a business like us, so… the team and the investors are still figuring out what sort of revenue targets we should be hitting.
“There are some goals, definitely, but we are still learning. Because, if you’re talking about the ticket sizes, your attractions can be as affordable as $12, all the way to $600 VIP seats.”
Wong told the Straits Times: “We actually do not see (ticket vendors) as competition, but rather, as essential partners, because for us, we are not in the ticketing business… That’s not what we are good at. What we are good at is engaging the customers. So we do see them as partners in this space.
“On our side, we want to make it easy to reach out to consumers… When you purchase a ticket on our platform, it could be a Sistic ticket, it could be a Sports Hub ticket.
“The form of the ticket is not what we are too particular about. We are a distribution network to reach out to these consumers and to engage them… We don’t want to get into the primary ticketing space.”
Share this