Event discovery network, IRL recently secured a round of Series B funding of $16 million after refocusing on virtual events. Given the current environment, paddle boarding, hiking and restaurant hopping has had to be replaced with live streamed concerts, webinars and Zoom parties.
IRL allows users to tap into various event categories, like gaming,
music, tv, wellness, sports, podcasts, lifestyle, and more, “including those
sourced from partners like TikTok, Meetup, Twitch, Spotify, SoundCloud, HBO,
Ticketmaster, Eventbrite, and others.” It is interesting to note that IRL has subtly
and functionally aggregated content across some of the largest existing short form
(TikTok and Instagram) and long form (HBO) content to create an events platform
– a service that is not synonymous or available on either of these content platforms.
In some ways this raises
an interesting point about whether content platforms should be monetizing
adjacent services such as events in addition to the adjacent services that they
are already monetizing such as educational content, sports content and retail
marketplaces. Another inherent value driver is the use case for IRL as a data
collection mechanism – a new age replacement for RSVP’s. “According to TikTok,
IRL had helped it gauge early interest in its The Weekend Experience event,
with some 52,000 IRL RSVPs and 1.1 million followers on its IRL profile.”
Overall, it is interesting that IRL has decided to insert itself in the
intersecting set between online platforms, content creation and social planning
to create a platform that allows for the
monetizing and user base culmination of each of these individual features. If
anything, it remains to be seen how many other new entrants can segment this space
further through either new partnerships and more content or other related services.
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