Ticketmaster’s Quicket Enters Kenya to Tap East Africa’s Growing Live Events Market
Ticketmaster is taking a firm step into Kenya through Quicket, the South African ticketing firm it bought in July 2024, as it looks to share in the country’s rising appetite for live shows, festivals and sport. Global ticketing groups have been hunting for a bigger slice of Africa’s young, phone-first crowd, and Kenya now sits at the centre of that push.
Event organisers in Kenya will be able to plug into Ticketmaster’s worldwide distribution while fans pay the way they already do, through Safaricom’s M-Pesa and Airtel Money. That mix is meant to take the friction out of buying a ticket on a phone.
The timing is no accident. International entertainment names have been circling a continent of about 1.6 billion people, the youngest on earth, where smartphones and digital money are changing how people find and pay for concerts, festivals, matches and cultural nights. Quicket says listings on its platform will surface on Spotify, Google, Meta, Apple Music and Bandsintown, so promoters can reach people far beyond the usual posters and radio spots.
Work is also under way on WhatsApp ticketing and AI tools that suggest events, a nod to how many Africans already shop and chat in the same app. Local names already on board include Beneath the Baobabs, the well-known Kilifi music festival, and the restaurant guide EatOut.
John Masembe, Quicket’s business operations director, said Kenya’s live scene is lively and still growing, and that the firm wants to give organisers, artists and venues the pipes they need while making the fan’s night out safer and simpler through digital tickets. Justin Van Wyk, managing director of Ticketmaster South Africa, pointed to the young population, the spread of mobile money and a thickening network of event people as the reasons Kenya looks attractive.
The launch puts an official stamp on a presence Quicket has been building in East Africa for close to ten years through local partners. Since 2016 it has been talking to organisers and putting field teams and support on the ground. The move also shows how fiercely global tech firms are chasing Africa’s digital boom, where mobile payments have made online buying ordinary and lifted demand for services that live on the phone. For Ticketmaster, Kenya is the door into East Africa’s live market, pairing payment systems people already trust with a public that is turning out in growing numbers for real-life nights out.
The company is treating the Kenya launch as more than a single-country play and as a base for the wider region.
