Despite the Ticketmasters and Eventbrites of the world, YPlan has emerged over the past nine months as an important player in the events industry.
The startup, which offers users an easy way to buy tickets last-minute, seems to have done quite well for itself; it claims to run on 15% of all iPhones in London (that’s 300,000 users, and yes, the stats are fuzzy).
Now, we’re witness to a pivotal moment for YPlan. The service is launching in its second city today: New York.
Strategy
Unsurprisingly, YPlan hopes to continue its growth rate on this side of the pond. While that’s no easy feat, it’s worth noting that the company isn’t taking this launch lightly. “When we say we’re launching in NY, we mean it,” YPlan’s co-founder Rytis Vitkauskas tells us.
My co-founder and I moved our families here. We built out the team here as well, and we’ve been on the ground for several months.
Now 45 employees strong across two cities, YPlan’s early strategy in New York is to win over users with its own connections. “In NY,” Vitkauskas says, “we want to make sure we offer some of the really hard to find experiences early on. New Yorkers particularly appreciate the VIP treatment.”
The city may or may not swoon over event exclusivity, but YPlan’s move to bringing the likes of Pharell onboard as an advisor (and a performer for its launch party) should at least help make a good impression. Nabbing Ashton Kutcher as an early investor doesn’t hurt, either.
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Given New York’s image as an active, socially engaged city with a market four times the size of San Francisco, putting the west coast on hold probably wasn’t a bad idea. By the looks of it, a successful US launch may lead directly to additional US cities, but Japan is also in the cards.
YPlan is now in a potentially powerful position. The company is aiming to capture New York’s last-minute ticket market, and will likely find the city saturated with spontaneous, procrastinating residents willing to pay for excitement.
With these grand plans in mind, Vitkauskas calls himself cautiously optimistic. “Everybody is working their tails off to make it happen. I think we can achieve the same or better success as we’ve found in London.” Importantly, he claims YPlan has “the best team possible to get there.”