MADRID, Spain, April 6, 2015 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- via PRWEB - Tech companies are entering Europe's digital market at a faster rate than ever and are not only benefiting regions recently stricken by vast unemployment rates and supplying jobs, but are also expanding operations beyond the region while exposing global trends along the way.
The story of the Spanish ticket reseller Ticketbis accurately illustrates such a phenomenon. The company started in 2009 by young entrepreneurs Jon Uriarte and Ander Michelena, closed 2014 with a turnover of 54 million euros (£40 million). This figure came out at nearly double than that of 2013.
Ticketbis operates as an intermediary between buyers and sellers of tickets to events, a triumphant business model which Uriarte and Michelena transported from the U.S. and adapted to the Spanish digital-market. Yet despite notable success in Spain, the company's growth is mainly a result of strategic expansion into various markets in Latin America, North America and Asia. In 2014, 40% turnover derived from Latin America with most sales coming from Argentina, Brazil, and Mexico. Newly launched markets in Asia made up 10% of 2014 revenues with sales deriving mostly from Japan, South Korea and Hong Kong.
Partly thanks to this process of internationalisation, Ticketbis now employs nearly 400 people across 14 different offices around the world. Most employees work from their headquarters in Madrid and Bilbao which according to Bank of Spain were experiencing regional unemployment rates of 18% and 14% respectively, in 2012.
What's more, internationalisation can benefit companies by lending insights on global trends. For example, Ticketbis' cross-border sales figures suggest a large increase in people travelling abroad to attend events. Between 2012 and 2013 cross-border ticket sales went up by 53% and between 2013 and 2014 they went up by 61%. These trends are visually represented in greater detail in this animated infographic titled "Fans on the Move".
Targets for 2015
Ticketbis closed 2014 with over 22 million unique users. 45% of site's traffic comes from mobile devices and this trend is on the rise. Therefore, the main challenge for the new year will be, in Uriarte's words, to "advance the mobile version of the site by improving usability and mobile conversion rates". In addition, Uriarte notes that "after a year of widespread rapid growth, we expect 2015 to be full of challenges especially in terms of improving our product and strengthening our position in all markets in order to offer better quality service and to take full advantage of the potential in new markets.
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