#493 Reimagining Events with Tech: Cosmin Ivan on Scaling Platinumlist Across MENA

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Mehmet: Hello and welcome back to a episode of the CTO Show with Mehmet today. I'm very pleased. Joining me, Cosmin Ivan Platinumlist, CEO. I think there's no one, at least in the MENA region, that doesn't know about Platinumlist Cosmin, but you know, let's say [00:01:00] tradition at the CTO show, we ask every guest to just like.

Tell us a bit more about, of course, yourself first and then about Platinumlist, and then we can start the conversation from there. I'm very excited. We're talking events, we're talking technology and events, security and events, which is something I didn't do before. So the floor is yours, Cosmin, and thank you for being here.

Cosmin: Thank you, ed. It's a, it's an honor to be here with you. Um, uh, thank you for the intro and, and thank you for the good things you said about Platinumlist. Um, yes, uh, I think. Um, it's nobody in the MENA region who doesn't know about platinums. Actually. We have, uh, customers, uh, texting us and talking with us, uh, from Europe, uh, knowing about us because they might have relatives here.

They might, uh, move there or they might seen an event with us being sold through us in Europe. Uh, and it's very fulfilling because this is a lot of work and passion and, and, uh, amazing [00:02:00] team to, to get to this point. Um, we really, uh, enjoy what we are doing and I think everybody's really passionate to be in this industry.

Like you said, events, entertainment, everybody wants to have tickets for events, um, right. Yeah. And, uh, about me, um, I'm almost 18 years in this industry, uh, when it comes to even management and ticketing. Um, I started in Europe. Uh, I was there active for seven years in the event industry as a promoter. So I was delivering events.

Uh, I think I delivered in Europe around 60 events, uh, national tours, um, um, and multiple shows. Uh, and then the ticketing part kicked in, uh, because the, the event promoter that I was working for. Uh, wanted to have control on the ticketing to be able to be flexible and agile on issuing tickets, on, uh, doing complimentary on taking care of the [00:03:00] tax reports in a, in a very fast manner.

And the best way and the, the most, uh, efficient way was to have the ticketing system. So that was my first, uh, contact with ticketing. And from one ticketing, we were managing three ticketing systems. And then. After this, I moved in UAE, um, around 2014, 15. I started with Platinumlist. And, um, yeah, I think I, I remember I joined as a ticketing manager.

I was literally going to events, uh, selling tickets. I was the cashier. I was scanning tickets, uh, with the founder of Platinumlist. Um, we were three people in the office or four people, uh, back in the day. And then slowly, uh, Platinumlist. And, and with the team, with, with the founder together, we started doing more things.

We started having more variety on the platform and, um, slowly we became, um, regional. Uh, we expanded in all GCC [00:04:00] countries. Uh, we develop more products, uh, ticketing products, like you said, security. Uh, and safety features for ticketing technologies to engage customers. Uh, we developed the, um, we, we developed on, on vertical, uh, our company.

We, uh, we developed other sides of ticketing because ticketing is not only. Uh, the part that, that we usually see. We, we go and buy the ticket and then we have it on our phone or on, on the PDF. It's actually more than that. It's a full ecosystem from, uh, client management to customer management to customer to customer management.

So that's mostly my story and, uh, my story with Platinumlist and Platinum Story. 

Mehmet: Great, great Cosmin and thank you again. You know, it's very, uh, inspiring. I would say first like, uh, I like. You know, ly, you know, beginnings and seeing something which, uh, [00:05:00] started as a small, growing that, and I can say proudly, maybe it's one of the first time I interview, you know, a CEO, which I am, you know, customer of, of their, of their products and services.

So it's one now, you know, when we talk about, um, you know, entertainment events, so we talk about experience Cosmin, right? Um, you've been doing this for, I would say long time. You just mentioned like, like almost like two decades now. 

Cosmin: Yeah. 

Mehmet: How do you define, because again, I relate to that later with another question.

If we want to define, and by the way, uh, the show. Tries to cover multiple themes because I believe like we have somehow a way to connect the dots. And I always talk about, you know, the experience, right? Yeah. From your perspective, what does it mean? A great event experience. So how do you do that? And I know for a [00:06:00] fact, because again, I was, I'm a client so I know exactly what Platinumlist does.

So, but for the audience, walk me through. For you, what's a great event experience means? 

Cosmin: Yes. Uh, if, like you said you are a, uh, you are a customer of us, I would be very happy on a private note to get full feedback about our product. Sure. I'm, I'm, I'm hungry for feedback, uh, to see how we can improve the product.

Um, okay. Um, I think. From my perspective, um, uh, customer experience when it comes to ticketing and events, the food experience starts from the moment you're buying the ticket. You interact with the event page, with with the ticketing purchase, with the checkout, and then you get your ticket, and then you show up to the event.

You, you get through the scanning, through the process of getting to, to the event, to the soft check from the security to. [00:07:00] Getting your wristband and then enjoying the, the show, and then you go home and then you are happy. That's, that's the full experience and that's what we are actually trying to do. Uh, we are not the promoter.

We are the ticketing, but right with us, like usually the customer interacts first with the ticketing. That's how he. Forms his opinion first about the event is how the customer, uh, purchase flow is how easy was to buy a ticket, how easy you paid, and then how easy you access your tickets and you get, you, you are updated about any changes to the event.

And how, how easy was the information given to you from the even page and you got your, um, you made your decision based on the. On the page, uh, layout with, with the information. And if you had the problem, how fast was the problem solved? Technical problem, uh, solved with, uh, with our customer [00:08:00] support. So, you know, when you go to an event and you have an experience, you expect to feel good.

That's why you're going there to, to feel, to, to create a memory, to have a memorable experience. So any small, um. Uh, stress point in, in all of this journey, it'll affect your, uh, experience and it'll give a bad taste or a good taste. So for us, it's very important to keep control on all of the stages of, um, buying the ticket first time and, and interacting with the event page and with the artist through the event page until you reach the event, you get in and then, um, and then leaving.

And then give us feedback how it was the experience. So. This is how I see, uh, an experience. It's from the moment you choose to buy a ticket until you reach home. That's, um, and we actually collect feedback on all of that. We [00:09:00] ask our customers to give us feedback every time they go to an event to understand what went wrong, what went right, and we share that with the organizer, our partners.

And we share the, the technical side with us, with our team to make sure we improve constantly the, the experience. 

Mehmet: That's, you know, a great explanation and you know, like. Not only maybe in the events or the entertainment sector. This is what we tell, you know, anyone who wants to start a new business, you know, there's a customer journey, right?

And what you just described, you know, the way me as a client to find things easy and then, you know, check out easily, and then I understand what they do and then guide me on the day of the event and so on. Now, between all this Cosmin, how much. You know, technology plays a role in this and I'm, I know back in the days we used to, we, we could just like book the event but actually not the full [00:10:00] ticketing.

Right. So we still needed to go somewhere, print tickets. Yeah. And so on. So maybe this is a small part, but if you can shed some lights on how at Platinumlist you leverage technology to fulfill all these, you know, steps in, in the full journey, I would say. 

Cosmin: Got it. Yeah. Um. You brought some melancholia in me

because I remember the times when we had to go with, uh, with the tickets to get them stamped in, uh, here in, in, in, in Dubai government. Um, we literally had, I think, events, 20, 30,000 people and we had to go with stabs, like with these booklets. And we hired, literally, we hired part-timers to go with us to help the government stamp the, the, the tickets.

Mehmet: Wow. 

Cosmin: To, to be able to, to deliver them an envelope or to pick them up from the event, depends on the setup. So, to, to, uh, thank you for that. Um, [00:11:00] yeah. So, um, technology wise, uh, you know, um, this, usually I think that the most advanced technology is simplicity. How you keep the simplicity of your product, but still delivering.

Uh, benchmark of technology. So that's, that's the, the, the, the, the, the very big intrigue that is, um, roaming around in everything we do is how can you evolve in, in technology and become, um, uh, uh, an advanced ticketing system, but still keep things simple. Um, so. Technology is really important, uh, especially when it comes to, um, uh, the market standard now because what's happening is that we see the ticketing part that you buy a ticket, but also we have lots of risk around the ticketing.

So mostly the technology is being driven by, uh, the market safety [00:12:00] because there are a lot of, uh, scalpers, there are a lot of, uh, it's a lot of black market around ticketing industry. We know that from. From lots of concert around the world, uh, you know, also technologies that are being built to, uh, assist the organizer but actually can give a bad name to the ticketing industry, like dynamic pricing and so on.

And so all of those that need to be etiquette. So technologies really important not only to improve the customer experience, but also to improve the safety of, uh, the fans of an event because. We can end up, uh, having, uh, an amazing event, an amazing artist coming in the region, but then having a very bad experience and get fans to have, um, you know, um, a very bad opinion about the concert because prices were high or they get scammed by, I don't know which website, or, or they, they bought the ticket twice of the price when [00:13:00] it's supposed to be a certain price.

So. Technology plays a crucial role, and this is a very, it, it's a fine line between researching what are the good and, and, and um, uh, let's say efficient technologies that you can use and enhance the ticketing experience and what, and the fine line of refusing to do some and to apply some of the technologies because if you overdoing it.

Then you end up hurting the ticketing process, you end up hurting the customer experience. So that's also very important for, um, ticketing. 

Mehmet: I know, uh, like you all, you introduce customer, like couple of, you know, uh, concepts or, you know, using technologies like safe tickets, fan fun to find sales like. Have you seen any in, decrease in, in, you know, such, uh, you know, incidents that you just mentioned?

Because Yeah. It's not only in, in one geography. I think this [00:14:00] is a global problem. Yeah. You know, especially if it's a famous band or maybe for a great match also as well, we've always seen and we hear about black market and, you know, even people selling. So how much this, you know, allowed. For you to see a decrease in the number of these frauds?

Like any numbers, any statistics you can share? 

Cosmin: Yeah. Yeah, that's actually a good question. We, uh, observe actually 85%, uh, drop in fraud cases, uh, with us. Uh, due to the, um, dynamic QR code we calling the technology is dynamic QR code. Um, we, we developed our own encrypted end-to-end technology to, to scan and validate tickets and, um.

Uh, this technology works in, in a very controlled environment. The ecosystem is controlling in our, so if you, um, even if you are offline with your [00:15:00] mobile phone, the, the, the dynamic code still changes and, and it still communicates with the scanner, even if it's offline mode, even if the scanner, it's in offline mode, but it'll be, um, able to be scanned only with, with our scanners because.

The code that changes is encrypted. So, um, that's something we, um, we applied and we've seen a big drop in frauds, uh, cases. And, um, we actually have customers thanking us. And the grade of, of privacy and safety that we gave to this technology is, is, um, uh, banking grade. Um. Security, which means that if you want to screenshot your QR code, it, it doesn't show the QR code, the screenshot, even if you record your screen to show it that it's changing.

Again, the QR code doesn't show up. It, it's, it says no screenshots allowed in the place where the QR code is. So, uh, [00:16:00] we push this to, to the extreme, but the idea is that we need to protect our customers. And it's extreme for the fraudsters because they can't cheat it. And, uh, it's amazing for the customers because they're happy now and again, when you want to resell the ticket, it's in this control environment, which is encrypted and nobody can crack it.

And it's ethical fan to fan exchange. Um, 80% of fans are selling it at the same price and they are capped. Mm-hmm. It's ethical capped, so everything is to give, uh, honest and trustful experience to customers with the technology. 

Mehmet: So I can't come and, for example, buy, I don't know, like a hundred tickets for a, uh, formula One, um, grand Prix in Abu Dhabi, and then, you know, start to resell them for higher prices.

I don't think this would be possible, right? No, 

Cosmin: it'll not be. There are countries in uh, GCC that [00:17:00] they allow this practice to, to have a higher, higher price. But the organizer usually puts a cap like 50%, a hundred percent the price. 

Mehmet: You still can control the price. 

Cosmin: Yes, yes. To, so the organizer will decide, but they usually very ethical.

Ethical, and we advise them like, you should do this, you should not do this. And also to give you the bad news. You'll not be able to buy a hundred tickets because there'll be a limit to it to avoid fraud. Okay. 

Mehmet: Okay. So you'll 

Cosmin: be able to buy maximum four or six or, or or eight. But to be protect the, the black market, the mass audience.

Yeah. It's ca also the number of maximum of tickets you buck you can buy. 

Mehmet: That's great. You know, and I like when you said like it's, uh, bank grade security, which is. I'm really happy for a reason. Uh, Cosmin and I would share it very frankly. I speak to a lot of, you know, business leaders and when we talk about security, so they think so, they do the basic things, the minimum things, right.[00:18:00] 

But what you've done is you done something which protecting your customers, but I'm sure, and I want you to highlight to me how much this. Also enhanced how much, how many, I would say, um, the events, I mean the, the ones who would, uh, would organize these events, so because you facilitate the ticketing part would want to come to you.

So they will, they, so I'm sure like someone, I don't know, like, uh, some in the US they would say, okay, if we're gonna go and make something in the Middle East, we have to go to Platinumlist because they have the security. Am I correct in this? Like, does this also reflect on the business? 

Cosmin: Yes, that, that's really true.

Um, so that's actually what's happening. We have international organizers, which they specifically request for us. Uh, when they, they, they go to the venue or they go to the government saying that we wanna bring this act here. Um, we want to work with [00:19:00] Platinumlist. We heard good feedback. We heard. Their, their technology is, is, um, uh, trustable.

It's sustainable. It's it's robust. So we wanna work with them and, and we en we enabled them, uh, to use all our technologies. We advise them what would be the best for their setup because. If you have a small event, maybe it's not necessary to put all the full stack because of various reasons, but when it comes to, uh, international organizers, they also come with high expectations because the international benchmark increased.

So we are trying to keep up with that and they feel home. So when we tell them, look, whatever you have offered in US or Europe or Asia. We can give the same setup, the same features. You are safe with us. You can continue your legacy that you build, whatever you are with us because we are a plug and play for you.

That's how we, we usually treat. 

Mehmet: Awesome. Now, one of the things you [00:20:00] started with also Cosme, like you, you scaled literally, you know, within the MENA region and coming from a technical background as well. I know that from logistics perspective, it's a huge effort. No one can, can doubt it, but also as a technology platform because, um, today I see Platinumlist as a technology facilitator actually, which connecting, you know.

The, the actual artist slash sport event, whatever, organizer, then you as a ticketing platform. So scaling in MENA is not something easy, I'm sure like you faced a lot of challenges. Walk us through and how did you overcome these challenges? And I want you to also, you know, just wonder because you just mentioned some countries they allow.

This nuances also from culture perspective and you know, how, how hard or easy were it for you also as well? 

Cosmin: It is a very good question, to be honest. Uh, and, and very um, um, I think I have few [00:21:00] interesting answers. Um, I never been even discussing with anybody this, so this is really cool. Um, so it's true. So there are.

Cultural nuances in across GCC. So for example, here in UAE, resell is not welcome. So if you say resell in UAE, it is not welcome because it has a a, a long history of. People being cheated by international websites, which allows cappers to upload fake tickets and so on. So if you want to have your product here, resell will not be the best way to have it.

But then when you go to the rest of the region, resell is welcome as as a product, but that's why you need to adapt and do your, your, um, uh, you know, your, your research when you do something with any product. Uh, the second thing, um. You said about scaling and, um, uh, and um, how it's not easy. Yes, it's not easy.

Um, but I [00:22:00] was everywhere, like whenever we scaled, um, I traveled there, I sat down, I understood at the beginning, you know, the, the first three or four countries. Uh, and then I found somebody amazing, which I handed over and I, I nurtured. And now, uh, he's my right hand. Um, so I. There are a lot of cha uh, challenges.

And you said really, you, you pointed out the main, um, thing that makes it challenging is the culture. You need to understand the culture. You need to, how to approach the clients there. You need to understand what is important for them and what you should do for them to be able to be accepted in the market.

Um, and uh, another thing that scalability brings, it's not only opening the countries themselves, it's also, um. To scale your technology, to hold this much, uh, volume of events and activities that you will enable after you scale. So that was a challenge because I. You see, if we look at us [00:23:00] as a sea, as a system, we are, uh, almost, uh, we, we are, um, celebrating, uh, almost 18 years of existence, um, since we were born as a, as a company.

And we, uh, recently celebrated 10 years in Saudi. Um, so we are an 18 year, uh, system, and that was built from the first coding. To until now, I think we have millions of, of coding lines. So Wow. Imagine. Yes. So imagine all of the work had to be done behind to, uh, refactor and, you know, to bring, uh, all this new technologies and also understand what was 10 years ago in the system and make it work.

But, um. But that's the beauty because that's, that's a pure, um, that's an amazing example of vertical integration of the technology. So everything is, is built in-house. Everything is done by us. Every small line and button you see, it's [00:24:00] coded by us and everything we have, we have control fully on our product.

So we are vertically integrated with everything we do from selecting seats on the map. Everything is done by us in house. Um, so. Having a system that grew so much and then scale it and then keep up with the, with the demand of people being, it was a challenge. I'll be honest with you. I had some sleepless nights.

Um, uh, I remember I slept in the office. Uh, I was awake for a few nights to, to just understand and how we can move forward to, to the next phase of us. And this was sometime back. Um, but that was an amazing experience that we went through. We learned a lot and we, um, we, we changed our approach. We changed the way we, we code the change we way, the way we build our products, the way we hire our people.

So it was a, an amazing experience, which came with the [00:25:00] pressure of the expansion and gave us lots of, uh, learning curves and that's what made us, uh, what we are today. 

Mehmet: Absolutely. I can imagine something here also, uh, Cosmin for you from, from a leader. So you have to, I would say, um, oversee and, you know, like kind of.

You know, guide the team on any changes that are gonna happen. So change management is not something easy because again, you might change something. Let's say I'm just giving out of an example, let's say for the UAE, and you decide, but you discover like, okay, it'll not fit Saudi, or, I don't know. And this can be both on, on technical side or on the business side.

So how do you manage this? Like how, how change management looks like at Platinumlist? I. 

Cosmin: Yeah, that's, that's actually a, a very good question. Um, um, I think, [00:26:00] um, every company needs to understand what they are and every company needs to understand which is the best, uh, management approach to apply to, to the team.

And, you know, there are, there are situations where you need to be this type of management. And there are situation, which you need to be this type of management. Sometimes you need to be agile, sometimes you need to be, uh, confident. Sometimes you need to be comfortable. Sometimes you need to go into emergency mode.

That's when the management changes. And the most important part in the management is the leadership team that you create. So the leadership team should have a format that you decide based on the situation you are in. And, um, there are many types. Even the books are talking about the type of managements, uh, that you can apply in your, in your company.[00:27:00] 

But the most important is you to be connected with the reality. You need to be connected with the business reality and understand which mode you switch on and you switch off. Um, and when it comes to, to the region and the specificity of each, uh, country, I. I think as long as you explain your mission, explain your goals, and explain the type of team you are joining you, it'll be very easy for you to attract.

The right people who will promote, will get inspired for your management strategy, and they will follow it. As long as you give them clear goals, you have a clear mission, then management becomes very easy. But if you don't have a clear path of what you wanna do, and. What's your product also? So you need to understand what do you do as a product and what you offer because it's, there is so much noise around, um, your product and around the economy usually, [00:28:00] and around the, the competition.

But you need to always know what you are as a product and what you offer, and you should do that in the best way you can. And then, uh, the management can be very easy. 

Mehmet: That's really inspiring. I would say Cosmo, and I like the way you explain it and you know, so you mentioned, you know, being agile, being sometimes, you know, you have to do it now and Yeah, like it's the dynamics, especially I can imagine, I've never been in entertainment sector, but uh, I work, I would say in parallel.

As a technology consultant back in the day. So I know like how, um, frequent changes, uh, can happen and, you know, uh, you have to expect like last minute change at any time. Now it's 

Cosmin: chaotic. 

Mehmet: Yeah. It's, I by the way, like I, I, I think like every sector have this kind of a moment where, you know, it happened, but may Yeah.

But probably within your sector it happens like. You, [00:29:00] you should expect to happen more than this. Now if you want to look, um, you know, and I try to do with this podcast kind of a finding common bridges. So, um, what do you think, um, as in general, um, should happen? For the MENA event ecosystem from both business and technology perspective.

Um, to attract more. I know like we have already good, good amount, but to see more. Entertainment tech, let's call it this way, right? So, so more technology companies focusing on entertainment. Um, you are pioneer in the sense of, you know, trying to enhance the customer experience, as we mentioned, the security aspect.

So what still we have to do to make things much better and attractive also. 

Cosmin: Yeah. Um, that's a good dilemma. Um, okay. But I [00:30:00] believe, um, you know, um, I think when, when you know what you what to expect and you know what the market offers, then you attract, um, the right people. So I think transparency, it's the key of enabling any economy.

So. I think UA e's in a very good place, um, now because, uh, they have a very good transparent system when it comes to entertainment to, to what can be done. And maybe, you know, every time is room for, uh, improvement, but the rest of the countries are, are following the lead and, um, they are at the moment where they're growing.

But transparency will be, um, uh, very good for the actors. Uh, for the players in, um, in the technology industry and even management industry to go there to do their [00:31:00] homework, to understand if there is an opportunity for them to enter that market, to have a clear path of where that market goes and that will follow.

So I think this is a key of any economy to grow or any field or any, uh, domain in the economy. Is transparency, clarity, and opportunities. And if those are communicated, this will follow. 

Mehmet: Absolutely. Now Cosmin, if we want to go back to the technology, and, um, I could have asked this question in two ways, but I, I prefer the second because it's more like, uh, you know, probably applicable.

There's a lot of emerging technologies out there, of course, AI and Web3 and blockchain and others. Yeah. Now, from your perspective, let me ask you this straight to the point first. What personally excites you the most? I. Second from practicality perspective, because I'm not big fan [00:32:00] of just saying, Hey, we're gonna put AI for the sake of saying we're an AI company.

But realistically, where these technologies can take, you know, a company like Platinums two or in general the entertainment, um, sector two. 

Cosmin: Mm-hmm. Got it. Got it. Okay. Um, for me personally, what excites me the most right now because there were. A few waves, what excited me, and that's also very important how to contain it, because even me as, as, as a leader, if I go and just dictate what wave comes in as a technology and ask my team to change all plans every time, that's also not good for the business.

Um, but currently what excites me the most is ai, of course. Um. Um, I'm using myself AI in many things that I do, and I'm trying to be smarter and more agile and more efficient and understand how AI can help me with that. So AI definitely helps, [00:33:00] um, when it comes to events overall. So I. If you think at entertainment industry as a whole, we can split it in few, in few segments.

So you have the ticketing, the technology that allows you to buy the ticket and go to the event. And then you have the, um, the experience at the event, which happens during the event when the artist goes in and then after the engagement after. So if you ask me what can be, um, exciting at an event, um, I. I might say that, um, uh, the drone shows, um, uh, some ai, uh, capabilities to understand better what the crowd wants, how the movement in the event are being done, and then have some interactive entertainment towards, uh, those, um, um, size like combination of where the people are, what the people want, and then.

Cater the experience to them. And AI can [00:34:00] do that because it's easy to analyze big load of, uh, of data and, and hu humongous amount of information and, and, and, and points of information. And then, uh, summarize a conclusion for you. Um, what I think will benefit the most, uh, the ticketing system right now, uh, as a technology.

Um, I think definitely ai. Um, but when it comes to AI to customer facing, um, there are two sides. It's the customer and the organizer. I think AI will benefit more the organizer than the customer. Mm-hmm. Because customer usually would be physically at an event. Yes, they have the app, but when you send somebody to the event, you want them to be engaged with the event.

So you pushing your app during the event can be a bit of disruption, but. It, it can go hand in hand. Um, depends on how [00:35:00] is the event set up. For example, if it's a event that is very interactive, then you can have the app helping you with that. So that's, that's mostly what are my thoughts about technology and, um, uh, how the events can be benefited by the technology.

Mehmet: That's great. And as we are close, 

Cosmin: it's more of an analysis than, you know, my thoughts. 

Mehmet: No, no, that makes sense. And I, I, I liked it, honestly. Cosmin. Uh, so what's, what, where do you see like, you know, things, uh, moving with, with Platinumlist? So, um. Just, you know, touch wood, every single major event here, at least in the UE where I live, you know, I see.

It's, uh, you know, you can buy the by Platinumlist. Uh, I know you have, you know, expansions that you talked about also as well, but what's the next frontier for, for Platinumlist? What, what do you want to achieve more? Let me ask it this way. 

Cosmin: Yeah. Um. [00:36:00] That's, that's a very tricky question because I need to be between the line of not disclosing too much about our future plans.

Sure. Because people are looking at us right now. Sure. And, uh, what can I disclose? You know, so what I can say is that the next frontier is, of course, we want to become a hub of this, uh, of events. We want to make events more discoverable. That's our mission. So we wanna, we already. Covering, uh, many areas of the world.

We are quietly for maybe the last three years testing Europe. Uh, we have very good resource lately, um, because we like to test things before we, we officially, uh, launched them. We are actually working with Asia from, with some events. We have some events in us, so we wanna. Push further our expansion beyond GCC.[00:37:00] 

We have some surprises coming in the next month. Um, yes, few, um, places that we will, um, will be expanding our business and also we have, um, we have products that will be launched that will change a bit the way entertainment industries being, um, seen with, with technology products in ticketing, which is exciting.

So the vision is to become international, global. To make, uh, events more discoverable. We wanna connect the right people with the right events and expand our product portfolio, which will, of course, in the end have the mission to improve the customer experience and your fan, your, you as a fan to improve your experience with the event.

That's what, um, the future will hold for us. 

Mehmet: Great. That's, that's good enough. I would say I'm not greedy, you know, to ask you for something I should not know at this stage. [00:38:00] That's, you know, for me it's, it's good to, to to hear, you know, about the expansions and what's coming, the new product launches.

Finally thing Cosmin before the actual final thing. Um, do you advise more entrepreneurs to be in this sector, especially in our region? 

Cosmin: Um, yeah, I think, I think entertainment needs entrepreneurs, um, they need an, uh, we need entrepreneurs to, to cover other areas of the event. For example, I think there is a, a big room of improvement when it comes to.

Um, academy for events, we need more professionals. We need people who manage events that they have a big knowledge of, of how things are being done, which would help us a lot. I think there is a lot of room of, um, event management tools that are very useful for event organizers to, to manage their teams, to manage their budgets, to manage everything related to the ecosystem.

Um. [00:39:00] I think there is room, um, of technologies and even not even digital technologies, but physical technologies for, um, events on site, like, um, um, um, crowd tracking, um, some AI to help organize as, organize better their space and so on. So there is a lot of room, especially in the, uh, entertainment emerging markets.

Um, the full region. So when I talk about, um, uh, GCC, I talk about as a, as a union, you know, um, like European Union and so on, because the mobility is very high. So imagine the, the locals of the region, the residents, they can go their ID anywhere they, they go and they fly. And that's, that's an amazing, that's an amazing opportunity for, for the entertainment business to have.

Um. All the countries being able to visit each other only with their ID is is [00:40:00] unbelievable. So yes, I think there is potential. I think there is room for more entrepreneurs to come here and establish businesses for entertainment. And entertainment has a lot of problems, which problems request solutions, which entrepreneurs solves the problem with solutions.

So there is room. 

Mehmet: Absolutely. And I think, you know, um, yourself, Cosmin and what you have done and what you've told us today with what platform list, uh, have done also over the 18 years, and congratulations again for the success. It's, it's a motivation. It's a proof that, uh, you know, you can start here. And to be honest, as you said, Cosmin, you know, like religion as a whole is a GCC.

In addition to the mobility, they're encouraging also, you know, these kinds of, uh, you know, uh, sector to flourish currently. So we have a lot of things coming. So, you know, we had, uh, world Cups, like, uh, before in Qatar, we had the expo in Dubai. We're gonna have the, uh, world Cup again in Saudi Arabia, in, [00:41:00] in, uh, less than 10 years now in 2034.

Right. So a lot of things happening, and I think, yeah. So this is, this is, uh, a good. Time to, to to be here and, and start. So I will not ask you about where, because I think no one knows. Or at least in my opinion, there's no one that doesn't know where is Platinumlist. So it's Platinumlist.net, I believe.

Right. Any, any other, any other place to, to guide people to? 

Cosmin: That's it. That's it. We have an international landing page where we can choose your website, your, your city, or your country, and you can explore whatever is happening there. Yeah. So that's the, and I want to, to take this, this opportunity Please.

And, uh, thank to the whole team. Um, it's not, uh. It's, it's, uh, it's always a teamwork. Uh, it's always absolutely, um, I'm really proud of all the team that, uh, worked in Platinum and they're working in Platinumlist and, and they're doing amazing jobs. They're amazing passionate people. [00:42:00] Uh, brilliant people, which, uh, we, we nurture them and we empower them to, to do great things.

And it's not, it's, it's not a one man job. Uh, one man show. It's, it's a teamwork and, um, always I'm grateful for such amazing team, and I think a true leader is a reflection of his team. Uh, nobody in the world can be a leader without his team, so because of them, um, I'm, I'm, I'm doing my best and I'm trying to be successful, and their success is my success, and my success is their success.

Mehmet: That's great to hear Cosmin and, um, you know, uh, salute for, for this, you know, this, um, I would say way of leading, uh, the company and, and the team. And I'm sure your team also, they, they share the same thing as well. Uh, yeah. I can, I, I, you know, like I all, I always tell people you can understand if a company is doing well on the way, how.

People when they interact with the company, how they are treated, right? [00:43:00] Because if, if, if people, they have a good culture and they can see this. So it'll reflect. And this is, you know, I think this is part also of the user experience and I see, I understand more now why I'm getting like, good service. So, um, that was, that was good to see it from the man himself.

From you, Cosmin, thank you very much for being here with me today. And again all, any link. We mentioned or anything, you will see it. That is for the audience on the show notes. This is how usually I end my uh, episodes. This is for the audience. If you just discovered us by luck. Thank you for passing by. I hope you enjoyed it.

If you did, so, give me a favor, subscribe and share it with your friends and colleagues, and if you are one of the people who keeps coming again and again. Thank you very much for your support. Thank you for all what you've done for the podcast this year. We are ranking in six countries, sometimes seven countries, sometimes five simultaneously, but I didn't see this at the past 20 a half years since I started the podcast, so this cannot happen without two factors.

First, you the audience, and [00:44:00] second you Cosmin and all my other guests also as well. So I really appreciate this and as I say, always stay tuned for a new episode very soon. Thank you. Bye-bye.