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Fitchfork

From EverybodyWiki Bios & Wiki

Fitchfork
File:Fitchfork.png
Type of site
Product marketplace
Available inEnglish
Founder(s)Eugene de Beer
Websitewww.fitchfork.com
RegistrationOptional (required to for bookings)
Launched1 April, 2016
Current statusOnline

Fitchfork is a South African company which operates an online marketplace and entertainment service for people to list or book live performing artists for private events. The company is not a booking agency and has no artists under management; it's a broker which receives percentage service fees in conjunctions with every booking that is made on the marketplace. Fitchfork currently operates in South Africa with artist listings in six cities.

Product overview[edit]

Fitchfork can be accessed via its website where registration and account creation is free. In order for users to book an artist, they need to create an account first. This can be done by signing in with either Facebook, Twitter, Google, or using their personal email and password combination.

Users can search for artists on the platform by name, genre, location, or city. Once they find the artist they would like to have perform at their event they can, depending on what the artist has set up, request a quotation or book a pre-set package from the artist. When the artist accepts the request the user is required to pay 100% of the money using Fitchfork's online payment solution, into the company's escrow account. Only after the artist has performed at the event will the money from the booking be paid into their bank account.

Users can create a listing by choosing to "Become a musician". Users signing up as artists are required to have admin access to the Facebook page and YouTube channel of the act they are listing. The user will be required to authenticate with their Facebook profile. Artist set their own pricing brackets or choose to provide pricing on a quotation per event basis. Artists complete their profile by supplementing it with their based location, how far they are willing to travel, days they are available to perform, and how much they would typically charge to perform at an event. Artists and hosts have 72 hours to complete a booking. After the booking has been confirmed the hosts and artist can message each other directly using the Fitchfork messaging service.

Fees[edit]

With each successful booking the company charges the host a 10% services fee. Registered artists have the option to specify who should bear the charges for the service fee; them or the host.

History[edit]

Shortly after starting his career as a professional software developer at a private bank in South Africa in 2013, Eugene de Beer developed an urge to do something meaningful with his spare time. Eugene had developed a great love for live performing musicians and had devoted his time to creating video playlists of unsigned musicians performing live. It then dawned on him to create a mobile app that would aggregate such videos in an all encompassing profile of a musician.

The goal at first was to build an app for his concept, however he soon realized the time and effort it would require to develop the app for multiple platforms would require more than just one person. The decision to develop a mobile friendly website rather than an app was critical in getting the first version out. At the time the website was called Dgigg and it listed artist profiles which included a curated list of YouTube videos, an aggregated social timeline feed from social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, Google, and Instagram.

It wasn't until the first version of the website went live that Eugene decided to get extra help in the form of former university friends Eric Dimpe and Mashuvho Mukhithi. Mashuvho and Eugene worked at the same company at the time and he would take the lead as Chief Product Officer. Eric was a developer and worked alongside Eugene to get the website's automated processes in place. Together the three grew the website through its product road-map and achieved what they envisioned for the platform.

Unfortunately within it's first two years of being live, the website didn't garner the traffic that the trio had hoped. And this caused a decline in team moral which saw them discontinue further development of the website and taking it off-line in Q4 of 2014.

This however wasn't the end for Dgigg, Eugene envisioned a bigger and better version of the platform. One that would be more inclusive, transparent, and that would focus heavily on the South African entertainment industry. On 22 October 2015, Eugene registers the domain name www.fitchfork.com in anticipation of his ground up rebuild of Dgigg. On 30 April 2016 Fitchfork is released to the South African public and still struggled to garner the anticipated traffic that would satisfy it's determined founder.

It wasn't until the end of 2016 when Eugene met Estee Claasen, a masters student in applied drama therapy at the University of Witwatersrand that the discussion of a better version of Fitchfork came about. The duo shared a common dislike to artists being paid in favours and doing work for free. It became inevitable that Estee would join Fitchfork in some capacity. Toward the end of 2016 Eugene moved to Cape Town, South Africa where he once again met up with Estee who introduced him to the performing arts sub culture of the city. An introduction that injected new energy into the dwindling concept that was Fitchfork. Estee then formally joined Fitchfork as the Head of Community, making quick and lasting relationships with musicians in the mother city.

On March 28, 2018, Fitchfork goes live with a redesign that would see the platform move away from it's green color pallette to a more familiar and trusted blue and white scheme.

References[edit]


This article "Fitchfork" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:Fitchfork. Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.