In class, we've heard about facebook translating its pages to different languages in a super fast manner … and for free by using crowd translation.
Crowd is hot! Its fast and less expensive, making it a lucrative approach for firms wanting to do anything from translation, OCRing, to recently, FUNDING!
Unbound, a british firm seeking to "crowd-fund" books, emerged as a response to the decline in bookselling business. The idea is simple, visitors to the site see portions of unfinished books and pay a small amount (say $15) in return to getting the finished book.
Will social media ride the bandwagon? They clearly have a massive advantage. Tons of users, targeting capability and the ripple effects make social media the best platform to take this idea forward. Anyone from funds to entrepreneurs can benefit from this value proposition as it links the investors directly to investment projects.
Regulation will need to step-in, but I think this will eventually happen. It’s a natural extension.
Article about Unbound:
2 comments:
Crowd funding is definitely an interesting space and Kickstarter in the US is proving that fans will fund projects. Since inception, they've raised more than $75mm from over 750k backers!
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Yes, "Crowd is hot!" and will be hot. And yes, social media will be riding this. Nonprofits are using this already on Facebook. You can like a particular charity and it broadcasts to your entire network.
The great thing about crowd funding is that you have the channel to test if there is a market for your idea before investing your time and money. It is easy to convince people to like your idea but getting them to fund/put their money into it is completely different.
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