Ticket provider Eventbrite has reportedly laid off 45% of its staff, around 500-600 employees, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, mostly in music.
Revenue is down across the entertainment sector, especially in ticketing as there are quite literally no events going on for tickets to be sold to. Not to mention reports show that Eventbrite’s losses have been growing year-on-year since 2016, even after it went public, and also bought competitor Ticketfly, in 2018.
In May last year, Ticketfly founder Andrew Dreskin left Eventbrite, telling Billboard, “I absolutely believe that Eventbrite will be well-situated with the best music ticketing product on the market and a bunch of crappy competitors to compete with.”
The layoffs are expected to reduce the company’s annual expenses by $100 million, and also included unspecified cuts to executive compensation.
Eventbrite confirmed the layoffs to Billboard and released the following statement:
“As a company whose mission is to bring the world together through live experiences, Eventbrite has been significantly impacted by the COVID-19 global pandemic, alongside the entire live events industry.
“To ensure the long-term durability of our mission, we have made the difficult decision to reduce our global workforce by 45 percent. This is a harsh reality to face and we are saddened to see many of our team members depart the company. We are committed to taking care of impacted employees during this already difficult time and in addition to severance, we are providing extended health benefits and dedicated job replacement support.
“This is a challenging time for communities all over the world and while we can’t predict when the pandemic will pass, we are committed to providing a strong platform to help creators rebuild their businesses and enable the return of live events when it’s once again safe to gather.”