The Challenge
Eventbrite is the largest self-service ticketing platform in the world. Each week, organizers use Eventbrite to process 2 million tickets in more than 180 countries.
Each event page is a unique visual experience, with organizers uploading many images for each event. Eventbrite processes 7 different sizes for each image on an event so that organizers and attendees can access them seamlessly on their computers, tablets, and phones.
We serve 1 million unique Origin Images a month. As many new events are published every day, we continue to grow the number of images we ultimately render and serve to our customers.
Before imgix, Eventbrite used a suite of internal image-processing tools, built on top of Amazon EC2 and Django. Managing 10 million Origin Images and targeting high pixel density devices, Eventbrite potentially needed to store 200 million derivative images.
While robust, the internal image-processing system drove up infrastructure costs and required a full-time engineering effort. A pre-processed approach also handcuffed Eventbrite designers. Introducing a new image size required reprocessing all 10 million original images.
The Solution
Eventbrite needed a performant, flexible image-processing partner. We sat down with Kevin Stone, Software Engineering Manager at Eventbrite, to discuss why they chose imgix.
“We were intrigued by the simplicity of the API,” explains Stone. “The opportunity to offload image processing and delivery to a hosted product was also a win.”
Integrating imgix was simple. We were able to develop a full, working prototype over a weekend.
Eventbrite was drawn to imgix’s ability to resize and crop images on the fly, which meant the company didn’t need to store and pay for rendered derivative images.
“We mostly focus on cropping and resizing images to best present organizers’ events,” says Stone. “Our event listing page configures multiple different sizes of images using the HTML5 picture element. Doing this with imgix is simple and performant.”
Best of all was the straightforward implementation. Eventbrite could keep images on their existing Amazon S3 bucket—no transferring the original images to a new storage system.
The Results
With several images per page, the savings add up for Eventbrite. Stone calculates, “imgix saves at least 100 kB per image by helping us serve the right size and format for each device.”
imgix also helps Eventbrite decrease load times site-wide and deliver perfectly-sized images in web and native experiences. “imgix,” Stone notes, “has allowed us to support richer, fuller-frame imagery without slowing down the page.”
Our developers can simply request a desired image size and offload the complexity to imgix.
The Eventbrite engineering team no longer needs to maintain their own image-processing infrastructure, freeing up team members to focus on domain-specific problems.
“imgix has greatly facilitated a transformation of our product, providing a more beautiful expression of the events and experiences available on Eventbrite,” sums up Stone. “imgix removes the burden of running our own media processing and management system, allowing us to focus on building and delivering an exceptional ticketing and event management platform.”
