Crowdfunding Platforms: Ecosystem and Evolution

Crowdfunding has become an important aspect of society today. It has been said to have supplanted traditional financial institutions and has given new life to ventures. The intent of this monograph is to allow you to understand crowdfunding in its current context, how it is affecting society, how it functions, and factors that can impact successful interactions between the crowdfunding project creator and the people who fund these projects. Section 1 details how crowdfunding first came about and how it has evolved over time, including the key participants of crowdfunding and how crowdfunding as a concept has grown and changed since its inception. Section 2 discusses an important question that the crowdfunding industry has been asking: whether crowdfunding is disruptive to traditional financial institutions or whether it transforms the entire financial intermediary field. As crowdfunding is a broad term used to describe multiple models of crowdfunding, section 3 presents the four common models of crowdfunding: donation, reward, equity, and loans. There are three main players in the crowdfunding process: the project creator, the backer, and the platform. Factors that can affect crowdfunding can be categorized under three main classes: (1) factors that are specific to the crowdfunding users, namely the project creators and backers; (2) factors found within the crowdfunding campaign page itself; and (3) factors built into the platform design and policies. Sections 4, 5, and 6 explore how some of these factors have an impact on crowdfunding outcomes. Finally, the monograph ends with a discussion of how crowdfunding may be progressing, with a few nascent models entering the crowdfunding sphere as well as how the impact of new technology can affect crowdfunding. Since crowdfunding has become mainstream, there have been multiple cases of fraud and other ethical issues that have arisen as well. We wrap up by delivering views on multiple issues on ethics, responsibility and decision agency in crowdfunding.