Kickstarter by the numbers

By the Numbers June 2012 Michael Wolf about.me/wolf 2012 -‐ Michael Wolf -‐ h>p://about.me/wolf

What categories are king on Kickstarter? Today’s its music and video, tomorrow will see other categories grow •  Music and Film/video make Total Finished Projects by Category up over 50% of ﬁnished Technology;% Theater;%5%% projects. 2%% Comics;%2%% Art;%9%% Dance;%2%% Publishing;% Design;%3%% 10%%•  Technology only represents Photography ;%3%% Fashion;%3%% 2% of total ﬁnished projects, but expect that to rise fast Music;%24%% Film%&% Video;%30%%•  Finished publishing projects likely kept low due to ease of self-‐publishing on e-‐book Games;%4%% Food;%3%% plaMorms 2012 -‐ Michael Wolf -‐ h>p://about.me/wolf

How often to projects succeed? Well, it differs by category… •  Dance and theater have the highest success rates, in part Success Rates by Category due to lower average 80%# financing goals 70%# 69%# 64%#•  Fashion has the lowest 60%# 48%# 54%# success rate at 21%, but 50%# 44%# 40%# 45%# 40%# 41%# 38%# 35%# overall there have been only 30%# 27%# 34%# 32%# 29%# 391 fashion projects as of 20%# June 26th 10%# 0%#•  Music’s 54% success rate is l# Co t# De e# Fa n# #V # Ga # Ph M # no g# Th gy# Da # r# # og c# bl y# n od es ics eo Al Ar te impressive given that music ot usi Te shin nc Pu ph sig m hio m lo Fo id m ea ra s i #& ch represents nearly a quarter Fil of all finished projects 2012 -‐ Michael Wolf -‐ h>p://about.me/wolf

What is average size of a successful project? The average size of a successful project varies dras?cally by category… •  There are three major outliers when looking at average project size: Design Average Successful Project Size ($) ($49k avg), Games ($38k avg), Technology ($36k avg) !$60,000!!•  Large average successful project sizes !$50,000!! !$49,095!! are driven by large outlier projects. An !$40,000!! !$38,152!! example is the Pebble watch ($10.3 !$36,396!! million), which drove average project !$30,000!! size for design way up !$20,000!!•  On average, certain categories such as !$9,226!! !$8,784!! !$9,438!! !$8,854!! !$5,346!! !$5,599!! art and dance tend to have smaller !$10,000!! !$4,301!! !$3,460!! !$6,982!! !$4,980!! !$4,199!! project sizes due to lower overall !$.!!!! ﬁnancing needs for typical projects in l! Co ! ! e! n! !& n! ! ! ! og c! y! g! ! r! t ics eo od es gy Al Ar i te ph nc in sig io us m lo id m Fo ea ish sh this space Da ra M De Ga no !V Fa Th bl ch Pu ot m Te Ph Fil 2012 -‐ Michael Wolf -‐ h>p://about.me/wolf

How big is each Kickstarter category in total successful projects and aggregate revenue? Some categories have small total project counts, but big total financing totals due to outliers Total Successful Projects and •  As can be seen by size of Revenue ($USM) by Category categories and ver_cal placement, music and film lead Music$ all others by large margin 7,446$ Film$&$Video$ $45M$ 6,713$ $72M$•  Art, theater and publishing have significant numbers of Art$ 2,548$ Publishing$ projects, but total revenues are $13M$ 1,861$ $13.5M$ Theater$ more on part with other topics Design$ 674$ Food,$ 698$ 1,910$ $9M$ $40M$ $8.7M$Games,$ Comics$ 709$ Photo,$ Technology,$ Dance$ Fashion,$ $31.7M$ 753$ 333$ 605$•  The size of games and $6.5M$ 582$ $2M$ 391$ $3.7M$ $5M$ $14.6M$ technology circles indicate Key: Size of circle indicates rela?ve size of aggregate successful bigger average successful project revenue, ver?cal placement indicated rela?ve # of total finance thresholds reached successful projects in a given category. 2012 -‐ Michael Wolf -‐ h>p://about.me/wolf

What are the fastest growing categories on Kickstarter? RelaBve Difference in Share Between Live •  When comparing the current Projects and Finished Projects share of a live projects by category to what the historical Games$ 37%$ share a category has had of Publishing$ 35%$ finished projects, games, Fashion$ 34%$ publishing and fashion seem to Food$ 26%$ be growing fastest. Comics$ 24%$•  While a category may have gone Design$ 20%$ up or down rela_ve to others 0%# 5%# 10%# 15%# 20%# 25%# 30%# 35%# 40%# and its historical share, it’s likely ALL categories of projects are Note: This chart show the percentage difference between a growing as the crowdfunding category’s current share of live projects (live cat/total live projects) and historical share of category (finished proj’s by _de li`s all boats cat /total finished projects) 2012 -‐ Michael Wolf -‐ h>p://about.me/wolf

How successful are each project by size? There is slight varia?on by category, but not much… •  Art, dance and theater tend to Successful Projects Percentage by have the smallest projects by Size & Category size band, with 90% of projects 100%# by Category in these categories under $10 90%# thousand 80%# $1M+$ 70%#•  Design has the largest 60%# $100kC$$999.9k$ percentage of successful 50%# $20kC$$99.9K$ projects over $10k or bigger, 40%# 30%# $10K$C$$19.99K$ with nearly 50% of successful 20%# $1K$C$$9.99K$$ design projects in that funding 10%# >$$1k$ band 0%# Co t$ Da $ De e$ Fa n$ $& n$ $ Ga $ Ph M $ og ic$ Th gy$ bl y$ no g$ r$ ics eo od es Ar te Pu ph Te shin nc sig m hio us m lo•  Design and games have the id m Fo ea ra $V s i ch ot largest percentage of successful Fil projects at $100k or larger, with 6.5% and 4.9% respec_vely 2012 -‐ Michael Wolf -‐ h>p://about.me/wolf

How do unsuccessful projects break down by percent funded? Looking at complete misses and near hits… •  While projects that don’t achieve their goal usually miss by over 50%, Unsuccessful projects by percentage there are some that come very funded by category close. Technology has the most near-‐hits, with 1.6% of projects geang over 80% of goal. 100%# 90%#•  While 22% of total projects get no funding, some categories usually 80%# do be>er in garnering some 70%# support. Only 10% of food projects 60%# 81-99%#Funded# get no funding, and 11% of design 50%# 61-80%#Funded# 41-60%#Funded# projects see no support. 40%# 21-40%#Funded#•  When projects do fail, it’s in part 1-20%#Funded# 30%# 0%#Funded# because they can’t get past a 20%# certain threshold. This is illustrated 10%# by the fact only 5.6% of 0%# unsuccessful projects raise over t$ $ e$ d$ n$ n$ $ ic$ g$ $ $ $ r$ ics es eo hy gy Ar te in nc sig io o us m lo ap m id Fo ea ish sh Da M De Ga no $V Co gr Th Fa bl 40% of their target $& ch to Pu m o Te Ph Fil 2012 -‐ Michael Wolf -‐ h>p://about.me/wolf

Is there a magic threshold which projects must hit to gain momentum? It appears once projects get past 20% funded, likelihood of success goes up •  The vast majority of unsuccessful projects get DistribuBon of Unsuccessful Projects by stuck at 20% or below of Funding Threshold Hit funding •  Talking to crowdsourcing plaMorms, some believe once you cross 30% funded threshold, it gains momentum by moving outside of your own personal network and a>racts strangers. This distribu_on appears to conﬁrm that. 2012 -‐ Michael Wolf -‐ h>p://about.me/wolf

Methodology •  All founda_onal data is from Kickstarter available on their stats page •  Kickstarter updates their data daily, so the data does change slightly every day. The date of the sta_s_cs used for this analysis was June 26, 2012 2012 -‐ Michael Wolf -‐ h>p://about.me/wolf

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Kickstarter by the numbers

by Michael Wolf on Jun 27, 2012

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