Kickstarter to hit $300m this year? • Hacker News Board

Re: Kickstarter to hit $300m this year?

#11

Post by jerf » Fri, Apr 20, 2012, 2:22 PM UTC

waterlesscloud wrote: post #6

I expect other players to come in for big name creatives. Maybe the Hollywood agencies, CAA for example. Or maybe the creatives themselves set up their own infrastructure. Say Joss Whedon wanted to raise $10 million for a show. With Kickstarter he'd have to give them $500,000 of that, and it's not at all apparent that he would actually need them. If you had an agency roll this into existing services, maybe with a nom…

"With Kickstarter [Joss Whedon]'d have to give them $500,000 of that, and it's not at all apparent that he would actually need them."

I'm not sure it was possible to pick a worse example. Dr. Horrible is quite possibly the Hollywood project most desperately calling out for fan funding that has ever actually been made, and it was still only made because he just put up the money and hoped for the best. Concrete evidence would suggest that he's not capable of raising millions of dollars from fans without some assistance, because if he could have, he would have then.

Using the Wasteland 2 average donation of call-it-$50 ($47.86), is $500,000 that excessive for coordinating and aggregating the donations of 200,000 people? That's not free. Joss can't avoid paying something for that service. Perhaps someday they'll move to taking a flat fee per donation, though that would also require Amazon and the other payment processors Kickstarter uses to go to flat fees too, which seems unlikely.

Re: Kickstarter to hit $300m this year?

#12

Post by bproper » Fri, Apr 20, 2012, 2:23 PM UTC

goatforce5 wrote: post #9

waterlesscloud wrote: post #6

I expect other players to come in for big name creatives. Maybe the Hollywood agencies, CAA for example. Or maybe the creatives themselves set up their own infrastructure. Say Joss Whedon wanted to raise $10 million for a show. With Kickstarter he'd have to give them $500,000 of that, and it's not at all apparent that he would actually need them. If you had an agency roll this into existing services, maybe with a nom…

I have no idea how the traditional Hollywood system works, but if Whedon raised $10m from a studio via an agent and, I dunno, a production house or something, how many middle men would get their fees from that $10m and what would it add up to?

Joss Whedon might be able to raise the money on his own due to his exceptional internat fame, but for most indie producers, the incumbent system takes a way bigger slice of the pie than 5%.

Re: Kickstarter to hit $300m this year?

#13

Post by jonathanjaeger » Fri, Apr 20, 2012, 2:26 PM UTC

bproper wrote: post #5

citadrianne wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They don't want to. That would detract too much from their ability to serve creatives.

Entrepreneurs are creatives. it's no different than the pebble smartwatch or light table project, except you are offering stock in the company instead of physical rewards.

That's all the difference in the world. One is a finite project where you act as a patron and get something in return no matter what (assuming the creator doesn't fall off the face of the earth). If you fund a startup, most of the time your money doesn't have any sort of return.

Re: Kickstarter to hit $300m this year?

#14

Post by ianterrell » Fri, Apr 20, 2012, 2:36 PM UTC

cryptoz wrote: post #10

ronnier wrote: post #7

Thank you for not posting as "$300mm"

Yeah, eh? What's that extra m for anyway?

I think it has its roots in Roman numerals. i.e. MM = 1000*1000, or 1 million.

And regardless of whether you like it or not, it is the standard abbreviation in the financial world.

Re: Kickstarter to hit $300m this year?

#15

Post by _delirium » Fri, Apr 20, 2012, 3:05 PM UTC

jonathanjaeger wrote: post #13

bproper wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Entrepreneurs are creatives. it's no different than the pebble smartwatch or light table project, except you are offering stock in the company instead of physical rewards.

That's all the difference in the world. One is a finite project where you act as a patron and get something in return no matter what (assuming the creator doesn't fall off the face of the earth). If you fund a startup, most of the time your money doesn't have any sort of return.

In particular they're very clear on the finite-project angle. You can't just raise funding for your art studio, but for some specific piece of art or project your studio is doing. A startup can already use Kickstarter to fund a specific project that way, if they want (several game studios have). But they can't just raise funds for the company "in general", which I don't think is something Kickstarter will be looking to change.

Re: Kickstarter to hit $300m this year?

#16

Post by ajays » Fri, Apr 20, 2012, 3:19 PM UTC

This is very cool. Kickstarter is the leading edge of a tectonic shift.

Quite often with these new ideas that come out of left field, the pendulum swings the other way after a certain point. While I like Kickstarter and other such projects (a lot of cool gizmos would not see the light of day were it not for Kickstarter), I fully expect the next year or so to be peppered with reports about fraud, etc. in the popular media.

It used to be that if you had a widget that you wanted built at scale, you had 2 options: mortgage the house (and bug the relatives for cash), or approach one of the big guys and beg them for help. With Kickstarter, you don't need the big guys anymore. And as with any other such change where the Old Guard gets sidetracked, expect them to fight back with scare stories and mockery.

Re: Kickstarter to hit $300m this year?

#17

Post by jonursenbach » Fri, Apr 20, 2012, 4:23 PM UTC

Wonder how long until Kickstarter sheds its Amazon Payments dependency so they can keep a larger share of the pot.

Re: Kickstarter to hit $300m this year?

#18

Post by draggnar » Fri, Apr 20, 2012, 4:37 PM UTC

jonursenbach wrote: post #17

Wonder how long until Kickstarter sheds its Amazon Payments dependency so they can keep a larger share of the pot.

Wouldn't they have done that already? Maybe there is some partnership at work.

Re: Kickstarter to hit $300m this year?

#19

Post by olalonde » Fri, Apr 20, 2012, 4:44 PM UTC

ajays wrote: post #16

This is very cool. Kickstarter is the leading edge of a tectonic shift. Quite often with these new ideas that come out of left field, the pendulum swings the other way after a certain point. While I like Kickstarter and other such projects (a lot of cool gizmos would not see the light of day were it not for Kickstarter), I fully expect the next year or so to be peppered with reports about fraud, etc. in the popular m…

I completely agree. I predict there will be a "but think about the children" argument made for regulating Kickstarter within one year.

Re: Kickstarter to hit $300m this year?

#20

Post by shawnc » Fri, Apr 20, 2012, 4:48 PM UTC

waterlesscloud wrote: post #6

I expect other players to come in for big name creatives. Maybe the Hollywood agencies, CAA for example. Or maybe the creatives themselves set up their own infrastructure. Say Joss Whedon wanted to raise $10 million for a show. With Kickstarter he'd have to give them $500,000 of that, and it's not at all apparent that he would actually need them. If you had an agency roll this into existing services, maybe with a nom…

It's not apparent he would need Kickstarter - he could attempt a crowdfund straight through his own website, thus not giving anyone else a cut except whoever his payment provider is. He'd certainly drive enough traffic there, to not require any 'help' from Kickstarter.