
Insights we discovered when we scraped and analyzed all of Indiegogo’s campaigns - ejunprung
https://medium.com/p/2a48bc6ffd57
======
slg
It is also worth noting that Indigogo has the option for projects to keep the
money raised even if it falls below the goal (for a higher cut of the money
IIRC). Not only would that alter revenue numbers, but I think it would also
influence how projects set their initial goals. Wouldn't you be a little more
conservative on your Kickstarter goal since it is an all or nothing situation?

~~~
avalaunch
Not necessarily. IndieGoGo offers two types of funding: flexible and fixed.
Fixed is exactly like KS where you only get the money when you reach your
goal. With flexible, you get whatever you raise but are charged different
percentages based on whether you reached your goal or not. If you did, you're
charged 4% but if you did not, you're charged 9%. Thus you're incentivized to
be more conservative on IGG as well.

~~~
Goopplesoft
You basically rephrased exactly what OP said. He's arguing that the % spread
isn't as strong an incentive to be conservative in the funding amount.

~~~
avalaunch
Hmm. I must have missed the part where he mentioned the higher cut when I
first read his comment (or it has been edited since). I assumed he wasn't
aware of the higher percentage.

------
gojomo
Does your data allow comparisons at different points in time? In particular,
is the gap widening or narrowing?

(A 6X differential isn't too surprising when there's a clear first-mover or
early-mindshare-leader... but it also isn't insurmountable as long as the
market is growing and fluid.)

~~~
dpmehta02
Google Trends info:
[http://www.google.com/trends/explore?q=kickstarter#q=kicksta...](http://www.google.com/trends/explore?q=kickstarter#q=kickstarter%2C%20indiegogo&date=1%2F2009%2056m&cmpt=q)

------
glaugh
We put together some fun histograms from the raw data in Statwing. You can
play around a bit more yourself.

[https://www.statwing.com/open/datasets/cb2e735b5e8428f521828...](https://www.statwing.com/open/datasets/cb2e735b5e8428f52182842d3e04d97ab83e9135#workspaces/7054)

Thanks OP for making the raw data available.

(Edit: Disclosure, I work at Statwing)

~~~
ejunprung
Awesome!

------
robomartin
Tangentially on topic: I am surprised that Kickstarter doesn't have a way for
members to sign-up for updates of various kinds. I am almost exclusively
interested in technology projects. I would love to get daily emails featuring
new tech projects. No such thing exists. I don't visit Kickstarter every day.
What's ends-up happening is that I sometimes miss out on really interesting
projects because I don't know they existed. Some of the most interesting ones
I've discovered through HN and other sources but not KS.

I imagine they are missing out on a pile of revenue by not establishing a good
connection with members.

~~~
avalaunch
The powers that be at KS seem more interested in pushing projects they
personally like (artsy projects) instead of tailoring their recommendations to
each user. As such I find their newsletter useless as I imagine a lot of
people do.

~~~
calbear81
Arts and Culture are part of their founding DNA and you can see how hard they
are trying to retain the spirit of Kickstarter to fund projects that may not
have clear commercial value by giving more face time to these projects.

When Kickstarter put in place restrictions on pre-sales and other types of
projects ([http://www.kickstarter.com/blog/kickstarter-is-not-a-
store](http://www.kickstarter.com/blog/kickstarter-is-not-a-store)), they were
primarily addressing the hardware/tech category that changed the core nature
of what Kickstarter was meant for.

~~~
avalaunch
Usually with a platform you want to go with the flow. If the users use it in
an unexpected manner - you learn from that and optimize for it. Instead
they're fighting their users. It's admirable that they're sticking with their
mission but it definitely leaves the door open for someone to leapfrog them.

------
fossuser
Indiegogo also charges the investors up front rather that only if the funding
succeeds - I know this has prevented me from giving money in the past. It's
annoying to deal with the fund/refund issue.

~~~
kanwisher
Nothing you have to do. Its all automatic

------
stefanve
The reason I only back kickstarter projects is that I don't like that you pay
inmidiatly with igg. Don't know if there is any data on funded projects that
delivered or failed to deliver but my guess igg will do worse in this respect
as well

------
MarcScott
I think it's important to realise that Indiegogo allows "raise money to send X
to college/hospital” and other such campaigns. For hardware projects,
Kickstarter also insists on a working prototype, which Indiegogo does not.

------
staunch
Is there any reason that the ultimate price for these services won't approach
$0? They're not actually providing promotion, right? That seems like the only
real value they could really provide.

~~~
kanwisher
I find out about 90% of these things from the kickstarter website or emails
saying my friends invested. So I would say for the projects I funded, I would
have never given them money if they weren't on kickstarter.

~~~
staunch
Well, then maybe it can work. Maybe they'll just lower their cut.

------
Geekette
Hard to really evaluate the info without the time factor. KickStarter is
massively popular, but I wonder how much of total haul is attributable to
activity before IndieGoGo came along (I believe KS started first). It would
have also been interesting to compare historical figures to activity in the
past calendar year, overall trends (eg timeline to when KS got to 6X IGG) vs
per categories, etc.

~~~
jonchiehlau
Indiegogo started in 2008 and Kickstarter was launched in 2009. Also, we saw
from the live dollar amounts that Kickstarter was quickly expanding it's lead.

~~~
Geekette
Wow, interesting to learn that Indiegogo actually launched first.
Kickstarter's bigger brand stamp made it seem otherwise.

------
nemothekid
Doesn't KickStarter screen all their campaigns? Does IndieGoGo do the same? If
not that explains why IG has so much more failures.

~~~
jonchiehlau
Yes, Kickstarter does curate it's submissions and IGG does not. We weren't
shocked by the success % but rather the large gap in money raised considering
IGG has 4 times the amount of campaigns Kickstarter has

------
ojbyrne
Two uses of "over X" in the first 2 "insights" raises my marketing-speak/bias
alarm. I'd prefer to see exact numbers. Or just leave out the adjective.

"Cumulatively, Kickstarter (KS) has over 110,000 campaigns..."

"KS ($612M) has successfully raised over 6 times more dollars than IGG
($98M)."

~~~
jonchiehlau
We compiled our numbers in this table
[https://docs.google.com/a/jonlau.me/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Aob...](https://docs.google.com/a/jonlau.me/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AobjVQ7EKnjldGpGYWg1WE1BVVZHWktuRkFfWW9QbGc#gid=2).
Or you can check out the raw data at
[https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AobjVQ7EKnjldGR...](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AobjVQ7EKnjldGRRa3ZxdTFDNHBrdDFNN3FTME54TXc&usp=sharing)

------
ppolsinelli
I tried my (wild) numbers here: [http://designagame.eu/2013/09/fermi-
estimates-crowd-funding/](http://designagame.eu/2013/09/fermi-estimates-crowd-
funding/)

------
jpswade
Why did Ubuntu choose Indiegogo over Kickstarter?

~~~
deletes
Kickstarter does not allow product design campaigns that don't have any
physical products and also no rewards in mass quantities. Indiegogo is less
strict.

From:
[http://www.kickstarter.com/help/guidelines](http://www.kickstarter.com/help/guidelines)

>>> Projects cannot offer rewards in bulk quantities (more than 10). <<<

>>> No product simulations or photorealistic renderings

Technical drawings, CAD designs, sketches, and other parts of the design
process are awesome and encouraged. Photorealistic renderings and simulations
that could be mistaken for finished products or real events, however, are not
allowed. <<<

