Event microblogging app and turn-key event management service Grooblin launched its app for iOS today. The application, which “lets you share and catch up with what’s happening at your favorite events around the world,” has received quite a bit of attention, after founder Wilhem Pujar participated and won Startup World Paris.
I
have seen quite a lot of entries into the events space, and it is tough. On the one hand, you need to get event-goers, an ephemeral, constantly changing group of people, onto your platform before, during and after your event; on the other hand, you have to A) get event organizer on your side and B) ultimately, produce your own events, as any eCommerce merchant knows the value is in selling your own products.
While event discovery has already been seen to be a difficult objective – Plancast founder Mark Hendrickson’s post mortem article gives good insight into the difficulties despite traction – I’m curious to see what the ultimate aim of an app like Grooblin will be. How will they play with/against event ticket retailers like Eventbrite? Will they monetize through ticket sales, through ads? Are the ads valuable if they can’t convert to sales?
Nonetheless, there is a lot to be done in this space – I still feel that I often miss events (tech and non-tech) and until this feeling is gone, I will be anxious to try out new players in this space.
Download Grooblin and let us know what you think!