Following the success of its standalone Messenger app, Facebook has launched an event-discovery app for iOS, potentially giving ticket agencies a powerful new tool with which to connect with customers.

The Events app, which will also soon launch on Android, will recommend events popular with users’ Facebook friends and from pages they’ve ‘liked’ and display an interactive map showing nearby events. Events already has 100 million users, despite only launching on Friday.

Says the social network: “Every day, more than 100 million people use Facebook events to discover things they can do with their friends – from festivals and 5Ks [runs] to neighbourhood fairs and nightlife. With hundreds of millions of events shared on Facebook every year, the fear of missing out is becoming a thing of the past.

Events already has 100m users, despite only launching on Friday

“[Events] is a new app we designed for event seekers who are passionate about keeping up with nearby events and finding things to do with their friends. Whether you’re looking for something to attend this weekend or just wondering what’s happening in your area, Events will help get you there.”

Facebook has previously introduced in-app ticket sales from event pages – something of which Ticketmaster, Eventbrite and Ticketbud are currently taking advantage – and payment using bots.

Get more stories like this in your inbox by signing up for IQ Index, IQ’s free email digest of essential live music industry news.

Ticketbud, a Texas-based developer of self-service online ticketing software, has become the latest company to take advantage of Facebook’s recently introduced ticket-selling functionality.

The event ticketing, promotion and management firm, whose clients include Jammin at Hippie Jack’s and Austin Trail of Lights festivals, restaurant chain Dave & Busters and Sony’s Game Developer’s Conference, will give clients the option of integrating its ticket widget into the social network, allowing customers to buy directly from an event page using a ‘buy tickets’ button.

“We are seeing increased demand for the ability to sell tickets on social platforms such as Facebook,” says Kayhan Ahmadi, Ticketbud‘s chief operating officer. “This updated functionality grants users the win-win scenario of taking advantage of Ticketbud’s event creation, ticketing and attendee-management features while giving them access to Facebook’s social reach.”

“We are seeing increased demand for the ability to sell tickets on social platforms such as Facebook”

In April both Ticketmaster and Eventbrite announced they would begin selling tickets directly through Facebook event pages.

As IQ wrote at the time, mobile device users in the US spend 87 per cent of their time in apps versus just 13 per cent in browsers (browsing, for example, the Ticketmaster or Eventbrite website) – and 50 per cent of their time in their most-used app and 78 per cent in their three favourite apps – demonstrating exactly why ticket agencies and white-label platforms would want a piece of what will be for many their most-used mobile app.

According to Statista, Facebook currently has more than 1.5 billion active users – over ⅕ of the planet.

Get more stories like this in your inbox by signing up for IQ Index, IQ’s free email digest of essential live music industry news.