Kickstarter recently released “The Year in Kickstarter – 2014” which outlined some facts and figures, as well as highlighted some significant projects and events that have happened over the course of the past year. One of the first things they proudly state is that:
“3.3 million people from nearly every country on Earth … Pledged more than half a billion dollars (that’s $1,000 a minute).”
Not only is Kickstarter growing by sheer volume, but so is the community that surrounds it. This year many of the creative projects launched on their platform received recognition in the mainstream media and in the world of crowdfunding.
Reading Rainbow made a comeback in July of this year, raising over $5.4 million dollars on Kickstarter from over 105K backers. Their project’s description encouraged fans to:
“Bring Reading Rainbow’s library of interactive books & video field trips to more platforms & provide free access to classrooms in need!”
This project attracted a huge amount of attention, as well as many famous backers including Seth MacFarlane’s offer to match $1 million in pledges made to the campaign. The project also partnered up with the top 5 Kickstarter campaigns who created limited edition rewards for the Reading Rainbow project.
The Chinese artist Ai Weiwei, in partnership with the FOR-SITE Foundation, raised over $89K in June for a public art exhibition on Alcatraz Island. Kickstarter’s update features some stunning pictures from the exhibit, which according to their campaign page:
“will be on view September 27, 2014, through April 26, 2015. Ai’s sculpture, sound, and mixed-media works will occupy several spaces on Alcatraz, including areas that are usually off limits to the public but will be open to visitors throughout the run of this unprecedented exhibition.”
The artist, who is currently unable to leave China, is an advocate of freedom of expression and human rights.
This year we also saw the world’s first hover board introduced on Kickstarter. Hendo Hoverboards raised over $500K on Kickstarter in December for their hover board. Their campaign attracted a lot of attention because it is something people have been waiting to see, it is new, and opens up many exciting possibilities. The team posted a video of pro skater, Tony Hawk, using their hover board. It has over 10 million views on YouTube.
One band, Anamanaguchi, raised over $277K in June of 2013; this year they released their first music video for their new album. What was one of the first things they did with the money? The band used some backer funds to send a slice of pizza to space! The video can be seen on their Kickstarter page, along with other fun rewards they offered fans and wacky ideas for promoting their new album, Endless Fantasy.
In fact, 5 successful Kickstarter projects were featured in Time’s, “25 Best Inventions of 2014”: The Hendo Hoverboard, The Coolest Cooler, IAmElemental Action Figures for Girls, Electric Objects, and 94Fifty: Freakishly Smart Sensor Basketballs. A Kickstarter funded documentary, “The Square”, was also nominated for an Oscar. Kickstarter campaigns are really starting to catch people’s attention and affect the world around them as crowdfunding continues to grow and become more commonplace.
Kickstarter released an interesting summary of their stats from the last year too, so that creators can learn from the information they’ve gathered. They shared that:
“In 2014, 22,252 projects were successfully funded on Kickstarter. That’s more creative projects than ever before.”
Along with that statement come some insightful trends. For example, August was the platform’s busiest month, with 2,311 successfully funded projects. The slowest months were January and February (with relatively stable numbers between March and December).
The category with the most successful campaigns was Music (with over 4,000) and Film & Video (with over 3,800). The highest earning categories were: Technology with $125M, Design with $96.7M, Games with $89.1M, and Film & Video with $66.4M. Their update also features an interactive map that allows you to see backer and pledge info by country. Kickstarter claims that:
“Last year, 2,202,171 people backed a project for the first time. 773,824 people backed more than one project, 71,478 people backed more than 10 projects, and 1,125 people backed more than 100 projects.”
Other helpful tips include the fact that Wednesday was the most popular day for pledges on the platform (the fewest pledges are received on the weekends). Early afternoon (between noon and 2) were the most popular times of day to pledge – the lowest was around 5 am.
Updates like these help platforms like Kickstarter not only celebrate their success over the course of a year but also remind backers, creators, and fans about what a great community they are involved in. They highlighted a lot of amazing projects that have delighted and surprised us in 2014 and showed us some useful pointers on how their platform is used. One thing is for sure – many people are looking forward to another interesting year for Kickstarter in 2015.
