“It’s not just about ticketing. We built CloudJoi to make the entire arts ecosystem visible, discoverable, and sellable.” – Kevin Teh, COO.
CloudJoi’s rise is a case study in how local event tech can become destination infrastructure. As showcased at Travel Tech Thursdays KL Volume 4, this Malaysian-born platform is helping cities transform indie local events into economic and cultural assets.
They’re not trying to out-muscle the OTA giants. Instead, CloudJoi is reimagining what motivates people to travel—rooting it in something intimate and powerful: live art performance. In doing so, they’ve built a collaborative, data-informed ecosystem for Malaysia’s local events that connects discovery, booking, and strategy into one seamless platform.
While the spotlight often shines on mega-festivals and global concerts, it’s the local, indie, grassroots events that give a destination its soul—and staying power. These smaller, often overlooked gatherings offer authenticity, creativity, and cultural pride. They’re what the next generation of travellers are hungry for.
The Origin: A Pandemic, a Favour, and a Wedding Tech Pivot
CloudJoi started as a favour to friends. “William called me during lockdown and asked, ‘Can we do something to help our theatre friends?’” recalls CEO Dennis Lee.
Dennis, trained as a software engineer and founder of digital agency Appleseeds, already had a livestreaming platform he built for a wedding.
“It was called Cloud Wedding—made for Khailee Ng, founder of 500 Global,” said Kevin Teh, COO and the platform’s technical architect. “We did a virtual wedding in 2018 where people could watch live, chat, and donate. In 2020, we repurposed it and launched our first show on CloudTheatre.”
“We had about two weeks to get ticketing running,” Dennis added, “and another two weeks to build the livestream backend. Our first show launched 30 May 2020, produced by William. We sold 300 tickets. From there, we just kept going.”
A Founder Team Built on Theatre and Tech
From left to right: Dennis Lee (CEO), William Yap (CMO), and Kevin Teh (COO) — co-founders of CloudJoi.
Dennis is the strategic backbone,—both a software engineer and a theatre actor—with product instinct and an eye for systems. Kevin, who describes himself as someone who “does everything”, drives the backend architecture, operations, and finance. William Yap, the creative lead, is the bridge to the industry.
“I used to work at Astro, a local media and entertainment company for 16 years,” William shared. “Theatre was always my passion. Eventually, I left the corporate world to produce full-time. I know the struggles—how hard it is to be seen, let alone funded.”
“We didn’t build CloudJoi as outsiders,” Dennis said. “We were already inside the problem.”
Trust wasn’t automatic—it was earned. What made CloudJoi different was its pure intention and clear mission from day one.It wasn’t just a tech product; it was a lifeline, built with, not for the industry. Backed by data and driven by empathy, the team designed tools that helped artists pitch better, plan smarter, and reach wider.
“Performing arts has always been seen as the least important,” William added. “Even in national planning, it’s barely considered. We were furious. Why weren’t we represented?”
CloudJoi became their answer—bringing the community under one roof and reminding people: this isn’t just a show we put on for fun—it’s an industry with real potential to generate value.
From One Show to an Entire Ecosystem
What started as CloudTheatre—a livestream space mimicking the live experience—soon expanded. They added virtual lobbies for pre-show chats, avatar photo booths, live emoji reactions, and even talkbacks during intermission. “We wanted to keep the spirit of theatre alive,” said Dennis. “There’s beauty in the wait. It mimics the feeling of sitting in a real auditorium, holding your breath just before the lights dim.”
“That’s the core of the experience,” Dennis said. “The show must go on—the theatre way.”
“We realised people wouldn’t prioritise a show if they could just replay it,” Kevin explained. “So we made it live-only for CloudTheatre. It’s not about convenience—it’s about commitment to the moment.”
When venues reopened, CloudJoi transitioned to physical ticketing, meeting the demand for hybrid and in-person events. They never stopped evolving.
Tech That Travels With the Industry
“We started with livestream infrastructure, added ticketing, then layered in engagement tools,” Kevin shared. “Now we’re working on revenue simulators and AI-led pricing.”
“It’s not just ticketing—it’s a cultural operating system,” Dennis said. “A digital toolkit for the indie arts economy.”
But it’s not just tech—it’s insight. CloudJoi doesn’t just help sell tickets; it crunches the numbers behind the scenes to help organisers plan smarter, pitch better, and grow sustainably.
In 2024 alone, CloudJoi generated RM14.5 million in ticket sales. They track genre trends, regional activity, fill rates—and feed that back to producers, venues, and even tourism partners.
“Johor, for example, has fewer events, but strong demand—especially from Singaporean audiences,” Kevin noted. “That kind of data is critical for arts tourism and cross-border planning.”
Fair Play in the Spotlight: Metrics That Tell a Better Story
To help producers succeed especially the emerging ones, CloudJoi updated its ranking logic. It’s not just about ticket quantity—it’s about speed. “Sales velocity,” Dennis explained, “this matrix tells us the momentum behind a show.”
“You can sell 100 tickets in two weeks, or 50 in the first 10 minutes. That signals real audience interest.”
This metric helps identify sleeper hits and rising stars. Producers use it to time their launches. Sponsors use it to spot what’s hot.
A Calendar to Fix Fragmentation
Before CloudJoi, the performing arts ecosystem was fragmented—producers often scheduled shows on top of one another with no shared visibility. CloudJoi didn’t step in to compete with the giants—it stepped in to co-create with the people who make the shows happen.
“Think City asked us to build something that aggregates everything,” Kevin said. “We agreed—it just made sense. It’ll benefit the community.’ So we built it.”
He added, “It wasn’t about building a feature for the sake of it. One by one, these were requests from the organisers themselves. We just facilitated and made it visible.”
That vision led to the creation of the Industry Calendar—a tool where organisers can pencil in shows and check what else is happening across the country. “It helps prevent clashes and fosters more thoughtful scheduling. When people can see what others are doing, they plan more collaboratively.”
Forecasting with Confidence: Sales Simulator for Smarter Planning
With years of data, CloudJoi built a sales simulator for producers to project revenue and attendance.
“You input venue size, genre, number of seats, ticket price,” Kevin said. “The simulator shows likely performance. It gives you a budget baseline.”
As Dennis explained, “ So if someone is planning a musical in September, we can project, for example, that 70% of sales might happen that month. It’s useful to know how sales trend based on timing and genre.That changes how people plan.”
Eventually, CloudJoi plans to integrate AI to refine these predictions, including how best to structure pricing tiers. “Right now, we already break down which shows perform best, but soon we’ll be able to tell you how to split your ticket tiers to maximise revenue,” said Dennis.
Designed for Now: Mobile First, Money First
Our user acceptance test always starts with mobile,” Kevin said. “We built the seat selection and checkout to work seamlessly on mobile.”
“Time is the enemy of intention. If you don’t buy now, you probably won’t later,” Kevin laughed. “So we made it dirt simple—select price, quantity, name, email, phone. No sign-up required. We’ll get the rest later. But nothing more important than getting the money first.”
In a world of distracted swipes, CloudJoi maximises momentum, making the moment of discovery the moment of purchase.
Be Search-Ready in an AI World, Not Just Show-Ready
“Every time an organiser posts something, I always tell them—please don’t just upload one poster and a sentence,” Kevin shared. “You need all the right information. Where is it? What time? Who’s in it?”
Behind the scenes, CloudJoi ensures that all this data is properly structured for SEO—using schemas, page-level tagging, and link-building strategies to help Google crawl and surface events more effectively.
“It’s not just about putting on a great show—it’s about making sure people can find it,” Kevin said. “The AI is trying to be like a human—what would a human want to know before going to a show? That’s what you need to include.”
A Promise to the Arts, By Arts, For Arts
CloudJoi isn’t just building tech—it’s building trust, audience, and longevity for the arts. Despite serving a small and often struggling market, the team has kept their rates for the arts community deliberately low. “We have two rates—one for the arts, one commercial,” Kevin explained. “And every year, we channel part of our revenue back into developing the arts. That’s a promise.”
It’s not just support—it’s belief. As Dennis said, “Once we run enough water, the plant will grow.” CloudJoi is helping nurture a future where the performing arts can thrive as a creative market, not just survive. And through tools, data, and yes—money—it’s showing the arts community that they don’t have to shout to be seen.
Because sometimes, the biggest standing ovation comes not at curtain call, but from the quiet consistency of a platform that truly has their back.
Where It Goes From Here
CloudJoi is now active in Taiwan and eyeing new markets including Thailand, Singapore, and Australia. Their future includes AI-led tools, deeper venue integrations, and affiliate models for lifestyle and travel brands.
But the focus remains: “We want performing arts to be part of the digital economy,” Dennis concluded. “It should be discoverable, fundable—and something people travel for.”
So the next time a traveller like you opens a travel app or asks ChatGPT, “What’s a local experience happening this weekend?”— the answer might not just be about what tours are nearby.
It might be where the curtain rises.
___________________________________________________________________________
Want to be part of the next Travel Tech Thursdays? It happens on the last Thursday of every month in Kuala Lumpur. Our next event is on June 26, where we’ll dive into an unfiltered conversation with Sarah Wan, General Manager of Klook (Singapore, Malaysia & Indonesia), hosted by WiT founder Yeoh Siew Hoon.
We’ll explore the lessons behind Klook’s Southeast Asia powerhouse.
Book your slot now.
