Eventbrite said growth in paid tickets and success outside the US contributed towards improved revenue and earnings figures in the final quarter of 2021.
In a trading update for the three-month and full-year periods to the end of December 2021, the group said it had generated quarterly net revenue of $59.6m. This was up 124% year-on-year due to higher paid ticket volumes, although the figure was well down on the $82.7m of Q4 2019 – the year before the Covid pandemic.
Reported net revenue per paid ticket was $2.70 in the fourth quarter of 2021, compared to $2.43 in the same period in 2020, largely reflecting an increase in average ticket value.
Paid ticket volume of 22.1 million increased 101% as both the supply of and demand for live events and in-person gatherings improved from the year-ago period. This volume had been at 10m, 16m and 19m during the three previous quarters of the year.
Paid ticket volume for events outside of the US represented 34% of total paid tickets in the fourth quarter, compared to 38% a year earlier. Comparing the same periods, paid ticket volume for events outside of the US increased 82% year-over-year, benefitting from the ongoing recovery of live events across its major international markets.
For the full year, Eventbrite registered net revenue of $187.1m which was well up on $106.0m in 2020 but a little more than half the $326.8m of 2019.
Eventbrite generated 291m ticket transactions during 2021 from a record 5.4m events, compared to 309m tickets in 2019 from 4.7m events.
Operating expenses were $51.8m in the fourth quarter of 2021, compared to $26.9m in the fourth quarter of 2020. Operating expenses in the fourth quarter of 2020 included a $14.0m reduction of reserves for estimated advance pay-out losses and other non-routine items.
Product development expenses of $17.9m for the fourth quarter of 2021 rose 52% compared to the same period in 2020 reflecting strategic investments in its scalable platform and software tools. The increase was primarily attributable to an increase in the size of its engineering team as well as higher employee compensation.
Net loss was $16.8m for the fourth quarter of 2021 compared with net loss of $20.2m in the same period in 2020, and $13.9m in 2019. Adjusted EBITDA was $4.0m in Q4 compared to $2.2m a year ago and $2.2m in 2019.
For the full year, net loss was $139.1m compared to net losses of $224.7m in 2020 and $68.8m in 2019. Adjusted EBITDA for 2021 was at $1.0m compared to a negative $134.1m in 2020 and negative $5.6m in 2019.
Julia Hartz, Eventbrite co-founder and CEO, said: “Our strategy will build on this momentum in 2022 to further empower creators, scale our platform, and drive long-term, sustainable growth.
“Our strong fourth quarter caps off a year of top-notch execution. We supported a surge in demand for live events while delivering meaningful improvements for creators who rely upon our self-service platform.
“A record 5.4 million events were produced on Eventbrite in 2021, and our innovative solutions helped creators of all types successfully expand their businesses.”