MostContagious2012.pdf - Contagious Magazine
MostContagious2012.pdf - Contagious Magazine
MostContagious2012.pdf - Contagious Magazine
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MoveMents /<br />
evolution and<br />
eMpowerMent<br />
term in office. He declared victory on Twitter<br />
and then Facebook shortly after the first US<br />
network made the announcement. The now<br />
infamous ‘Four more years’ picture used by<br />
his team has since become the most shared<br />
in history, racking up a record 4.4m Likes on<br />
Facebook and over 817,000 retweets.<br />
tinyurl.com/mashable-romney-obama<br />
tinyurl.com/social-media-election2012<br />
Disintermediation / Crowdfunding<br />
Admittedly it hardly trips off the tongue, but<br />
disintermediation (that’s cutting out the middle<br />
man) has been one of the hottest topics<br />
in the <strong>Contagious</strong> office this year.<br />
On 19 November, video game designer<br />
Chris Roberts smashed the record for the<br />
most crowdfunding ever raised for a new<br />
title – US$6.2m – pledged by PC gamers<br />
around the world to see his space sim, Star<br />
Citizen, get made. The generous gamers<br />
won’t get hold of an alpha version of the<br />
title for at least another year, but their faith<br />
and investment is a perfect example of how<br />
crowdfunding has matured in 2012.<br />
tinyurl.com/9amw3tc<br />
Roberts sourced $2.1m of his funding<br />
through Kickstarter, with roughly 34,000<br />
backers donating an impressive average of<br />
$62 each. This is consistent with current<br />
behaviour on the platform, with video games<br />
receiving more funding this year than any<br />
other category. Official figures published<br />
on the Kickstarter blog show that as of<br />
31 August, Games had racked up $50m,<br />
beating Film ($42m) Design ($40m) Music<br />
($25m) and Technology ($16m).<br />
tinyurl.com/9trtdlp<br />
Despite the success of Kickstarter, 2012<br />
has also revealed potential cracks in the<br />
crowdfunding model. In November Kickstarter<br />
was sued by 3D Systems – a leading<br />
maker of 3D printers – which claimed that<br />
its patents were being infringed by a device<br />
made by an MIT-bred company, Formlabs,<br />
which secured over $2.9m on the crowdfunding<br />
platform. As more established companies<br />
start to see their offering undercut by<br />
crowdfunded challenger brands, perhaps<br />
it is inevitable that the rigour and legality<br />
of Kickstarter projects will be increasingly<br />
called into question. Crowdfunded legal<br />
representation anyone?<br />
tinyurl.com/c8aw8my<br />
Kickstarter is working hard to manage the<br />
expectations of backers, clarifying in its<br />
blog posts that the platform ‘is not a shop’<br />
and there will be no equity crowdfunding or<br />
IPO made available. The process currently<br />
remains firmly rooted in gifting, not ownership,<br />
although this hasn’t stopped many<br />
economists claiming that the real revolution<br />
will come when backers will be able to obtain<br />
equity in exchange for their investment.<br />
tinyurl.com/c9fw38m<br />
Disintermediation / Fifty Shades of Grey<br />
Lastly, we can’t cover disintermediation<br />
without recognising the amateur success<br />
story of 2012 – E.L. James’ (aka British<br />
author Erika Leonard’s) erotic novel<br />
Fifty Shades of Grey. Although eventually<br />
published through a traditional publisher<br />
(Random House subdivision Vintage<br />
Books), Fifty Shades started out as somewhat<br />
niche Twilight fan fiction written under<br />
the pen name ‘Snowqueen’s Icedragon’.<br />
It lived first on fanfiction.com, then on<br />
Leonard’s own website, FiftyShades.com,<br />
MOVEMENTs purpose sErVicE data technology design social biz sharing amplified screens augmented retail personalise new loyalty payment sbpf<br />
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