A homegrown success story
Since launching in January 2006, Eventfinder has grown to become New Zealand’s most popular and comprehensive source of event information, with over 220,000 unique browsers every month and a Top 30 website ranking.
It wasn’t always like that. For the first three years from 2005 the business was privately funded and built from the kitchen table (literally).
Back then it was a big ask to find out online what was going on in New Zealand. We thought the country needed a website that covered the entire spectrum of events, and was easy to use for both the audience and the live entertainment industry.
After a year of research and development, eventfinder.co.nz was launched in January 2006. For the first two years we focussed on developing the core technology platform and gaining the number one market position for event information.
In December 2007 APN acquired an equity stake and provided the funding that allowed Eventfinder to press ahead with doing what we do best – making great online tools for the events industry and growing our audience numbers with a user-friendly website (easy to say, hard to do).
The following year Eventfinder formed relationships with New Zealand’s leading online media and formed a network of content syndication partners that includes Yahoo!Xtra, MSN, NZ Herald, Fairfax and AA Travel. The number of syndication partners now numbers over 150 websites and print publications.
We guessed correctly that this would be good for our partners (they get content that is expensive to produce in isolation), good for the industry (they only have to manage their event information in one place) and good for the audience (they can see events on our website as well as the top media websites).
We also thought that New Zealand needed an alternative to the multi-nationals that dominate the ticketing industry, so we have spent nearly two years developing a ticketing platform that is affordable, transparent and technically innovative.
So far it’s been used by iconic Kiwi acts like The Blacks Seeds, dDub, Kora, Anika Moa, The Phoenix Foundation, Cornerstone Roots, Dane Rumble, Batucada Sound Machine, Salmonella Dub, Dragon, Fat Freddys Drop and The Veils, as well as Festivals like the Liquorland NZ Beer Festival and The Food Show. Eventfinder also tickets one-off events such as the recent authors book tours by Lee Child and Diana Gabaldon.
Eventfinder is considered world-class overseas, so we began exporting the platform in 2009. Our first licensing partner launched in Austria, with several more licenses in Europe and Asia in the works.
We love what we do – making great applications for the live entertainment industry, our audience, and our customers overseas.
Management Team
We love innovating for the events industry more than anything. We’re successful because we work hard, listen to our customers and come up with innovative ways to make life easier for the events industry.
Contact
Although we don't provide telephone support, you can contact us through the web. If you need technical help with something, please log a support request here.