Kickstarter Keeps Funding Bigger And Bigger Projects

from the watch-'em-grow dept

One of the things that we always hear about new business models from critics is that they can't possibly "replace" some of the old business models. Often the talk is about how they're only good for "small" things, and how they simply can't scale. Of course, this seems to underestimate the nature of early experiments and how things grow over time. For example, Kickstarter has certainly become quite an amazing tool for helping to fund projects in the past couple of years. However, when discussing Kickstarter in the past, I've heard people complain that while it may be great for "small" projects of a few thousand dollars, it couldn't ever fund something "real," like more traditional sources could.

And yet... we've discussed how last year, Kickstarter users funded nearly $100 million in projects, and this year it's predicted to go much higher. And, already, we saw Kickstarter pass its first few million dollar projects. Then, late last week, the folks behind the Pebble e-paper watch announced that they were using Kickstarter to do pre-sales of their new iPhone and Android versions (previously they'd only offered a Blackberry version). The watch itself is certainly pretty cool. A smartwatch which is totally customizable, has a variety of apps, and basically acts as an interface with your phone (and it looks good). And lots and lots of people agreed. Within just 28 hours they had already passed $1 million. $2 million ticked off soon after. It's now approaching $4.5-million, making it the highest revenue Kickstarter project ever—and it's the fastest to get to those kinds of numbers.

No, we're still not talking about the huge budgets around Hollywood blockbuster movies -- but we're already going well past what the most expensive albums cost to record. But, more importantly, it's not difficult to see the trend lines here. And, Kickstarter has only been around for about three years. Go back to the beginning of Hollywood. How long did it take the traditional methods to get around to funding $3 million movies?

As Kickstarter (and similar platforms) become more and more popular, it's certainly not outside the realm of possibility to see a major motion picture funded via such a platform. This isn't to say (as I know someone will accuse) that this is the only way that such things will be funded. But it does highlight, yet again, that if there's demand, there will be ways to fund these things. If you don't think the future is full of amazing opportunities, you're simply not paying attention.

Filed Under: budget, crowdfunding, hollywood
Companies: kickstarter