Nigerian startup launches event discovery platform

Nigerian event discovery and ticketing platform DoingSoon has launched a programme that aims to support organisers in their promotional efforts.

DoingSoon, which went live last month, allows events that have been created on its platform to be distributed through various channels to automatically create exposure for events, help organisers reach large audiences, and allow the Nigerian market to discover events online.

DoingSoon claims to expand an event’s reach across Nigeria without any added marketing costs, as well as allowing organisers to request custom information for event registrations, create complex ticket pricing, and manage their bookings and tickets with a simple-to-use dashboard.

“All over the world, event organisers have always struggled with finding attendees for their events. It is costly, time consuming and sometimes difficult to find the right tool to manage their events,” DoingSoon co-founder Shina Memud told Disrupt Africa.

“Take Eventbrite as an example. They don’t accept local currency for events created for Nigeria, which forces the organisers to request for bank transfers or link to external payment options like Paystack. Using external payment options creates the additional problem of managing payments and attendees separately.”

Memu added: “Our business model is quite simple and straightforward. We charge 10 per cent from every successful transaction. We pay out to our organisers the same day the event ends, mainly to protect our users from any fraudulent or cancelled events.

“So far, we have hosted 15 events, and more have been added for 2018 from over 100 organisers. This will surely grow as we are working extensively on marketing. Considering the problem we are trying to solve is universal, we do plan to expand to other countries in the near future, most likely starting from 2019.”