Glubbin is a Danish startup founded in 2007. As the name hints, Glubbin concentrates on developing and marketing entertainment event services to young people and event promoters. The firm has developed a mobile service and s social network platform for that enables users to buy, receive, and display tickets using only their mobile phones.
The main value proposition of Glubbin to event promoters is that the firm’s platform makes it very easy to market the promoters’ events, manage guest lists, and to sell the tickets. Glubbin has also launched PCT patent pending mobile ticket service ScreenTicket. The service is claimed to be low cost, easy to handle and use, offers secure and copy-protected tickets while not requiring any extra hardware or software. Using Glubbin’s platform and ScreenTicket, the promoters can just set the event up and start selling tickets in a few minutes.
The users of Glubbin can have a single place to stay updated on exclusive events that may have been hard to locate previously. Tickets are bought using a credit card or other payment systems, but the actual transactions are made via normal SMS to confirm the purchase; hence credit card is not required after the initial setup.
Glubbin’s founders have stated (in Danish; Google translate version) that their goal is to expand to several foreign markets overs the next six months, which might require new capital. So far the firm has been funded by Danish early stage VC firm Østjysk Innovation A/S and Danish Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation. It seems the firm’s business model so far is taking a cut from the ticket sales.
Glubbin has a very narrow niche identified, which might be advantageous for expansion. The main challenge is to avoid any big player knocking them out with a similar service and more marketing muscle. On the other hand, Glubbin could also find partnering opportunities with established incumbents in other industries. As they state, the ticketing system does not necessarily need only to be used in youth clubbing events, it could enable also solutions in sports events, transportation etc. Many of the big players in those industries have some kind of mobile ticketing services already, though. One could also look a bit further – with the widespread mobile usage, the developing countries could be very compelling target markets for a simple yet secure mobile service, which allows promoters to set up events and collect ticket revenues.
