We would like to announce that ZAIKO Inc. (Headquarters: Minato-ku, Tokyo, CEO: Malek Nasser), which provides an electronic ticket sales platform, has surpassed 1,500 events held in just 4 months since the launch of its paid live streaming service in March 2020. (As of July 31, 2020)

■ Creating new possibilities for live events in the new normal era

With the spread of the novel coronavirus, many entertainment businesses have been forced to cancel or postpone events, and since around February 2020, it has been difficult to hold offline events as usual.

Amid various attempts by businesses during the pandemic, ZAIKO started offering services as a pioneer in paid live streaming from March 2020, and the number of events held surpassed 1,500 just four months after the service began. As a result, the number of distribution tickets sold exceeded 500,000, returning over 1.2 billion yen to the entertainment industry, including artists, event organizers, venues, and technical staff. Loft Project, which operates live houses mainly in Shinjuku, has held about 250 distribution events via ZAIKO since March, commenting, "Of course, the functionality of ZAIKO and the flexibility of ticket issuance are great, and the original platform that enables high-quality video and audio streaming is also highly valued."

The paid live streaming business that ZAIKO launched ahead of the industry not only connects fans and artists who lost their social interaction during the pandemic but has also produced innovative forms of artist support, such as the STICKITS (donation) function during live streaming, a comment function linked with Twitter, partnerships with QQ Music, China's largest music streaming platform, and subscription functions, creating new possibilities and revenue models for the live entertainment industry.

Fake Star Co., Ltd., which has deep ties with artists and musicians such as Kiyoharu and has held 8 paid live streams on ZAIKO in the past, commented on ZAIKO's services, "The support system is solid and flexible. We want to establish a system where artists and companies can generate revenue through paid streaming via ZAIKO in the future."

Furthermore, KAKUBARISM, the organizer of the band cero's "Contemporary http Cruise," which was ZAIKO's first paid live stream, stated, "Initially, we introduced ZAIKO for overseas use before the live streaming function began. The clarity of the system, its flexibility, and the quick responses from the excellent in-house engineers are the charm of ZAIKO. We want to continue thinking about providing new musical experiences that are not confined to existing frameworks."

■Overview of ZAIKO Inc. and its Services (Self-developed e-ticket sales platform)

ZAIKO Inc. is a highly capable IT venture company operating the white-label electronic ticket sales platform "ZAIKO", aimed at event organizers and digital media companies.

There are no initial costs or running costs for ticket sales of real events. In addition to real-time issuance and management, it offers tools for communication with ticket buyers such as the STICKITS (donation) and comment functions during live streaming. With support for multiple languages: Japanese, English, Chinese, and Korean, it enables ticket sales to people around the world through numerous partner media and owned media.

Since March 2020, amid many event cancellations and postponements due to the novel coronavirus, it has rapidly launched paid live streaming services and new functions to support event organizers such as artists, leading the new normal in the entertainment industry.

https://zaiko.io/livestreaming

・All-in-one ticket sales and streaming with zero burden on organizers - "ZAIKO LIVE"
ZAIKO, which can manage electronic ticket inventory centrally, track sales in real-time, and set up ticket sales comparable to major ticket agencies in a one-stop manner, started offering its fully self-developed original video streaming service "ZAIKO LIVE" from June 2020 due to the rapid increase in demand for video distribution.

As a result, event organizers can sell and distribute content to audiences worldwide completely free of charge through "ZAIKO LIVE" without incurring costs to external video services. The sound quality and video quality also maintain the highest standards as before, and it can be utilized not only for live streaming but also as a video-on-demand service.

・New features allowing ticket sales fees to be set to 0% and upsell functions through subscription services
In traditional functions, ticket sales fees related to payments and operational systems were uniformly set, but with a new feature introduced by ZAIKO in May 2020, it became possible to set ticket sales fees for event organizers to 0%.

This allows for the choice of whether to burden the purchaser with the sales fee that was previously included in the ticket price, enabling event organizers to control how the proceeds are distributed and providing audiences with new ways to support artists and event organizers.

Through ZAIKO's subscription service, clients operating labels and fan clubs can create subscription services tailored to their desires. By combining tickets and services, such as unlimited access to live streaming and sales of member-only tickets and subscriptions to web media, it helps create diverse subscription services.

In addition, utilizing the user data provided by ZAIKO, event organizers can conduct audience analysis and unique fan communication, as well as control the transfer and name changes of tickets, automatic seating and numbering distribution, thereby offering highly flexible ticketing configuration functions.