As crowds of people flock back to live, in-person events again, Groovoo – an “event ticketing platform meets social media app” – has just launched new ways for event goers to stay connected before, during and after events, and for producers to reduce fraud and streamline their business processes

Following a few years of pandemic-induced lockdowns, there’s been a spike of interest to attend live concerts, sporting events, and in-person business conferences again. To address that surge in demand, today Groovoo, an event ticketing platform meets social media app, launched several new digital innovations to help revive the awakened events industry. The new features being rolled out this month include a new Groovoo digital wallet, the ability to issue tickets in the form of NFTs using blockchain technology, live QR codes that are dynamic to help address ticketing fraud, and NFC readers.

Ticketing fraud and scams have become increasingly common as the events industry has begun to transition from physical to digital tickets. For example, about 12 percent of U.S. adults buying concert tickets online said they’d been scammed, according to a CNBC report. That means that roughly 15 million will likely be victims of a ticket scam during the second half of 2022, based on about 126 million Americans (38%) who will attend a music event in the summer and fall.

For event producers, the issue of friendly fraud via chargebacks has escalated rapidly and is causing significant losses due to an uptick in disputes that are denied by banks and credit card issuers. In fact, “friendly fraud” – when a consumer makes an online purchase with their own credit card, and then requests a chargeback from the issuing bank later on – is now the #1 type of fraud attack, per a 2021 Global Fraud Report issued by Cybersource, a Visa solution.

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New Groovoo event tech is here to save producers time while increasing their profits by reducing ticketing fraud

With its launch of new technology features, Groovoo has solved some major challenges for event producers – including the ability to better manage events, budgets, and partner payouts, reduce fraud to make more money, and shorten the time people spend in lines to get into events.

“In addition to Groovoo providing a deeper connection and interactions between producers and event goers via the social media features we’ve built into the app, event organizers now have a digital toolset to increase their profits via fraud prevention, and to streamline all their core business activities – from event planning to running financials, and paying out partners or investors in events in a timely manner,” said Leandro Garcia, CEO and co-founder of Groovoo.

The event tech advancements Groovoo has rolled out, some of them industry firsts, are:

• • Groovoo is one of the world’s first ticketing platforms that issues tickets in the form of NFTs (non-fungible tokens) using blockchain technology to store the transactions in a secure way via an immutable digital ledger (on Ethereum or Polygon). NFTs are cryptographic assets on a blockchain that cannot be changed and include unique identification codes and metadata that distinguish them from each other.

• • The NFT tickets are stored in the Groovoo digital wallet that event goers and organizers can quickly access via the mobile app. A compact, portable near-field communication (NFC) reader that can quickly tap a ticket holder’s smartphone or mobile device to validate tickets for faster entry into venues. A new Groovoo Live QR Code™ that is constantly shifting like an authenticator app prevents counterfeit tickets with images of others’ static QR codes.

• Groovoo, co-founded by longtime event producers, has designed an event planning dashboard for organizers/producers that is custom-built for the event business – which is often managed in a time-consuming, manual, and disorganized way using a variety of tools such as Microsoft Excel, or even just paper receipts, or reviewing bank account statements. With the new dashboard, organizers can now plan out events, input all event-related expenses, and calculate financial results (total sales, profits, and payouts) within the Groovoo platform.

Today, Groovoo’s engineering team consists of 16 developers, based primarily in Brazil. The company’s app development and tech R&D is led by Groovoo co-founders Frederico Pelúcio, a longtime developer of security software, and Arthur Sampaio, a software engineer with vast experience in the tech industry.

“Over time, we plan to introduce more functionality that will benefit event goers seeking to make connections with like-minded people, in addition to new ways for event organizers to offer ticket holders rewards such as special discounts on food, beverages and merchandise, exclusive access to VIP lounges during events, or early access to early-bird tickets at the best prices,” said Alberto Vaz, co-founder of Groovoo and W2K, an events production company based in Miami.

Vaz, who started in the events business when he was 16 years old, previously served as executive producer for one of the most well-known Brazilian singers, Bell Marques, during the time he was the lead singer of the popular band, Chiclete com Banana. In addition to co-founding Groovoo, he and childhood friend Garcia, own and operate W2K (Welcome to Kingdom), a production company that throws large events in Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, Orlando, and San Francisco.

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