Ticketmaster is ramping up its footprint in East Africa with the official rollout of Quicket – the ticketing platform that it bought in July 2024 – in Kenya and Uganda.
Quicket is working with local mobile-payment networks M-Pesa, MTN, Mobile Money and Airtel Money to support its rollout in the two new countries, where its ticketing will be fully digital.
The company also said that Quicket is working on “WhatsApp-based ticketing to bring event discovery and purchase closer to fans’ everyday conversations”, as well as on AI tools to aid discovery and easy purchasing.
Ticketmaster said that one trend driving its expansion in East Africa is improving infrastructure for live events – including big venues in Kenya and Uganda being upgraded for the 2027 Africa Cup of Nations football tournament.
Both countries are already exciting markets both in terms of their musicians and scenes, and fan demand to see those artists live.
“Packed Afro-fusion and Afro-House nights, festival crowds singing every word back to local artists, and a new generation of creators building vibrant music and culture scenes across the region,” as Quicket’s John Masembe put it in a statement.
But it’s the infrastructure improvements – not just upgraded venues but booming smartphone and mobile-payments usage – that are key to Ticketmaster’s investment.
Essentially it’s laying down the ticketing and payment rails now, ahead of what it hopes will be an exciting scaling up of concerts, tours and festivals in East Africa.
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