Crowdfunding at Spotlight: Taiwanese Case (1)
An inevitable element of a thriving entrepreneurship ecosystem is crowdfunding. Although the term “crowdfunding” was odd for many before 10 years, it has now reached a significant audience around the world and become a “fancy” business for the entrepreneurs as well as for the funders.
As an innovative method, crowdfunding platforms are taking advantage of the collective power of the crowd and getting more attention from policymakers, entrepreneurs, and citizens. Crowdfunding refers to activities wherein donations or investments are collected from the public via such platforms as social networks to fund a variety of projects, ranging from the production of cultural or artistic content to the establishment of startups (Carvajal et al., 2012).
As a prominent example of sharing economy, crowdfunding is also seen a useful method to alleviate reliance on solely public bodies or corporations for donations or financial support.
Taiwan is considered one of the countries where crowdfunding has gained momentum, both in terms of funding volume and number of platforms popping up over a couple of years.
Taiwan is a tiny but lovely country.
According to reports, with 13 active crowdfunding services, Taiwan possesses the highest density of platforms in the world. In 2019, over 900 local crowdfunding campaigns hit their funding goals and raised more than NT$1.6B ($55.5M) in total last year — twice the amount for 2018.
As a visiting scholar at National Taiwan University, over the next two and a half months, I will be investigating the crowdfunding ecosystem in Taiwan. I will particularly analyze the players in the market, market shares, types of platforms and projects, legal frame, and most importantly- factors affecting funders' decisions. It is obvious that my current time frame is quite tight for such comprehensive research. In fact, my initial plan was, as a recipient of Taiwan Fellowship for the year 2020, to spend at least 7 months beginning May 2020. However, the Covid-19 has killed all of our initial plans which normally included a couple of on-site surveys with the users.
As a Turkish academician, I hope that Taiwan’s experience in the realm of crowdfunding platforms would be helpful for Turkey and other developing countries to better understand the features of a successful crowdfunding platform and necessary legal infrastructure.
Stay tuned!
References:
Carvajal, M., García-Avilés, J.A., González, J.L., 2012. Crowdfunding and non-profit media: The emergence of new models for public interest journalism. Journalism Practice 6, 638–647.
