Chinese crowdfunding why heavy "crowd" light "fundraising": exposure is the purpose of the

This case may not seem like a crowdfunding project, but it is a crowdfunding mindset. What is crowdfunding? Crowdfunding began in 2008 in the United States, referring to the Internet to publish fundraising projects and raise funds, similar to the form of group purchases + pre-purchase, to the netizens to raise funds for the project model. To put it more bluntly, it can be explained in a more common sentence as, "That is, you can't afford to buy an airplane by yourself, but if 10,000 like-minded people buy an airplane with you, you will become one of the owners of this airplane."

The core idea of crowdfunding is to build a platform that brings together the strengths of small individuals to complete a project, and allows the small individuals involved to reap the benefits. The case of Sichuan Airlines, even though it did not launch the project through the Internet platform, but the way it operates reflects this core thinking. Sichuan Airlines has established a platform for the flow of resources for passengers, car manufacturers, drivers and other links in the industry chain, allowing all participants to maximize the benefits at the lowest cost. Passengers see the rights and benefits of free rides, so they give priority to buying tickets from the airline; drivers see the employment prospects, so they buy the car; manufacturers see the consumer purchasing power of airline passengers, so they sell the car at a lower price. In the entire flow process, Sichuan Airlines acted as a crowdfunding project initiator role, passengers, car manufacturers, drivers are supporters of the project, supporters to accept the project required to pay, and at the same time get the corresponding return. Achieved a "wool in the dog, let the pig to pay" successful marketing.

Sichuan Airlines has undoubtedly demonstrated a case of crowdfunding thinking, but in reality, most of the crowdfunding projects are going what way? We first understand the original sense of crowdfunding is how to operate: the project crowdfunding on line before they will set a crowdfunding goal, generally ranging from a few tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands, in the crowdfunding period of 30 ~ 45 days, the user can like the project to invest, and in general, crowdfunding projects will be based on the different needs of different crowdfunding stalls set up, the amount of money for each stall varies, and get a different return. If the target amount is completed within the crowdfunding period, it means that the project has been successfully crowdfunded, and the crowdfunded funds will be transferred into the hands of the project initiator, and the backers will be given equal returns. The return can be either in kind or in the form of services. If the target amount is not reached within the crowdfunding period, then it means that the crowdfunding has failed and the previously raised funds will be refunded back to the backers.

When the concept of crowdfunding came to China, it presented a situation that was very different from that in the United States, the country from which it came, and I've tried to analyze the two.

Chinese crowdfunding why heavy "crowd" light "fundraising": fans are just need, exposure is the purpose

Two, the United States crowdfunding more emphasis on the financing function

Back in 2012, crowdfunding is not as hot as it is now! Until Pebble (e-ink screen smartwatch) hardware products appeared in the United States crowdfunding platform kickstarter, high-speed fire and raised tens of millions of dollars in funds, people recognize the form of crowdfunding to product development, publicity mode, evolved into more and more technology products are fighting for the way through crowdfunding with consumers for the first time, and to obtain a high amount of financing funds to start the The project is launched by obtaining a high amount of financing funds. Successful cases also include: Android game console Ouya raised $8,596,000 in financing, music player Pono raised $6,225,000 in financing, the movie version of the "Beauty School Detective" raised $5,702,000 in financing, etc. There are many other projects that raised millions of dollars, and the Kickstarter platform has successfully financed more than 1.2 billion U.S. dollars for more than 60,000 projects. With more than a billion dollars raised on a single site, crowdfunding does have a strong financial calling in the United States!

Three, the characteristics of Chinese crowdfunding: heavy "crowd" light "fundraising"

Crowdfunding began in the United States, came to China across the ocean, and sprouted here, and incorporated more local characteristics. American crowdfunding is more in the financing ability, while Chinese crowdfunding is still unable to do so. A big reason why Chinese crowdfunding has not been able to give full play to its powerful financing function is that it has something to do with China's public sentiment. The reason why Chinese crowdfunding projects do not aim at financing is that the trust level is not high enough, so it has evolved into using crowdfunding as a new type of promotion, which seeks to become a means of product exposure, reduce marketing expenses, and even attract the attention of investors, channel operators, media, etc. The following two cases can fully illustrate the importance of crowdfunding. The following two cases can fully reflect this.

(1) Playing with exposure in the name of crowdfunding?

August 2, Wang Feng "peak storm coming" Beijing concert held in the Bird's Nest. A month before the concert, Wang Feng had already begun to sell the topic through the crowdfunding platform. The crowdfunding goal set at 3,000 yuan, the user spends 1,160 yuan can get including 580 yuan tickets 2, as well as recording 15 seconds confession VCR in the concert site screen play, the project only 10 places, just on line on the pre-sale and empty. In addition, it is also divided into 1740 yuan, 2320 yuan, 1000 yuan, 200 yuan five tiers of investment amount, the return is the concert sets, concert card packages and so on.

Generally speaking, organizing a large-scale concert requires a large number of entities with giant posters, multiple places to take turns in the publicity campaign, and ultimately the marketing costs become the concert's large cost expenditures. Wang Feng to crowdfunding to do promotional marketing, hype the spirit of entertainment, more media attention, get stronger exposure, so that crowdfunding platform has become an efficient and inexpensive promotional channels.

(2) implant marketing with fans as productivity?

Zhou Hongyi, Chairman and CEO of 360, released a new book, "Zhou Hongyi's autobiography: my Internet methodology", he did not choose the traditional way of debut of the book, but chose the crowdfunding platform for the book to launch a project to support the crowdfunding platform chosen is the Jingdong's new project, "make up a portion of the". In order to hype this crowdfunding project, Zhou Hongyi teamed up with Liu Qiangdong teamed up to superimpose a project called "private luncheon", gear is divided into 35 yuan, 148 yuan, 999 yuan, 2,999 yuan and 29,999 yuan, and the highest gear of the number of people to support the limitation of 9 people, you can and the two Internet giants **** into the lunch. The final amount of that single crowdfunding more than 1.6 million yuan. Zhou Hongyi's new book in not yet officially listed on the "get together" platform sold more than 60,000 copies. Refresh Jingdong crowdfunding a number of records, but also become the publication crowdfunding the most.

The first use of crowdfunding platform this new model to promote the new book, plus "sell" two CEO's precious time to do selling point, successfully captured the attention of fans. Zhou Hongyi take crowdfunding platform hype to get the book sold, Liu Qiangdong also through this opportunity for his "share" platform to introduce a large number of fans to the most simple and direct method of high-speed fans what is the crowdfunding platform, both an innovative marketing promotion, but also a direct user cultivation. The two big players this time using the "crowdfunding" concept to play very colorful.

While there are many other examples of Chinese crowdfunding, in general crowdfunding as an imported product, it came to China after the genes have changed a little bit, presenting a very different picture from the overseas model, its financing function is constantly weakening, pre-sale, publicity, exposure function is constantly being strengthened, more fundraisers intend to "crowd" level of exposure, rather than the "crowd" level of exposure, and the "crowd" level of exposure. More fundraisers are interested in "crowd" level exposure rather than "fundraising". From the latest "2014 (last) China crowdfunding industry report", we can see that the total amount raised in half a year is only 188 million yuan, compared with the balance of the treasure raised more than 500 billion yuan in just one quarter, sucking the amount of the gap is very far. Although the current fundraising results are not good, but BAT and other Internet giants expressed "very interested" one after another, Alibaba "Entertainment Treasure", Jingdong "to get together", Baidu Finance "Crowdfunding channel" and so on directly into the crowdfunding field. In addition to these Internet giants, vertical crowdfunding sites are also blossoming, including name time, crowdfunding network, the original will, LeChildren's network, dream network, Taomeng network, everyone cast, MoDot.com and so on. However, I believe that in China, if we want to realize the real meaning of crowdfunding for the purpose of attracting money, rather than just a means of "earning eyeballs", we need to establish a deeper level of trust between the supporters and initiators.

Four, various industries are eager to try crowdfunding mode, the threshold of attracting money lies in the degree of trust

1) Crowdfunding has become a channel for new products to test the market response

Of course, Chinese crowdfunding is not only for high profile celebrity projects, but also for hi-tech products, movies, and music, and it even extends crowdfunding for building hotels, hotels, and music. The crowdfunding is also being extended to include building hotels, buying houses, and buying land. There is a friend in 6coffee who has a very good idea in this regard, he bought a house in a suburb with a very high price-performance ratio, a beautiful surrounding environment, and perfect leisure and vacation facilities; he plans to take the house to launch a crowdfunding project, first of all, equip the house with a variety of audio and video equipment to create a small private theater, which will be used as a selling point for renting out the house as a vacation home, exclusively for the use of the supporters.

As for whether these are a good idea, take it up to do crowdfunding, with supporters to invest money to do verification, will soon be able to test the results. If the crowdfunding is successful, it means that the project is worth investing in and can be recognized by consumers. If the crowdfunding fails, it means that consumers do not recognize, then there is no need to produce this product. Secondly, if the first batch of consumer support, then in fact, in advance to lock a certain amount of customer base, and then can quickly build influence.

2) The use of crowdfunding to attract money, you need to solve the problem of trust

As just mentioned the friend who wants to do the family movie theater gimmick of the vacation home, perhaps you will think it is a good idea, then you will put money? Maybe you would, maybe you wouldn't, and you might be worried that the promoter would not be able to deliver on the promises he or she made, or that the project wouldn't be what you thought it would be.

Why crowdfunding in China is so heavy on the "crowd" and light on the "fundraising", and why there is exposure but not the ability to raise funds, is largely due to the fact that trust in the domestic Internet is still relatively weak. And crowdfunding crowdfunding is a new business model built on the basis of credit and social model derived.

At present, the overall social credit system in China is still poorly constructed, resulting in insufficient communication between crowdfunding promoters and supporters, thus hindering the development of crowdfunding. To really develop crowdfunding, we should first solve the problem of trust between people, for example, crowdfunding can first lower the threshold, first from the circle of acquaintances to develop, crowdfunding platform has the responsibility to guarantee and supervise the completion of the whole project, more transparent, to protect the interests of the supporters, perhaps so that the crowdfunding in China has a more suitable development of the soil.