The concept of crowdfunding has existed through the ages. It found a mainstream foothold in 2009 with the launch of Kickstarter.
Crowdfunding has been used to finance causes, tours, films, games and apps. The most successful crowdfunded project is Star Citizen, an online space trading and combat video game, which raised $30,044,586 (as of November 2013).
One of the most notable examples of crowdfunding in history comes from 1884 when the American Committee for the Statue of Liberty ran out of funds for the Statue’s pedestal. Publisher Joseph Pulitzer used his newspaper New York World to urge the American public to donate money toward the pedestal, and in just six months, the project raised $100,000. More than 125,000 people contributed $1 or less.
In 2012 according to research firm Massolution, 308 crowdfunding platforms across the world raised $2.7bn and successfully financed more than 1 million campaigns. The firm forecasts an 81% increase in global crowdfunding volumes in 2013, with the market reaching $5.1bn.
Crowdfunding caught up with the age of connectivity with the pioneering crowd-financing platform ArtistShare in 2000-2001.
This was followed by services like EquityNet (2005), Pledgie (2006), Sellaband (2006), Indiegogo (2008), GiveForward (2008), Kickstarter (2009). Because its mainstream success, a plethora of other such services have launched since.
