It is with great excitement that Singapore welcomed the news of Kickstarter’s arrival on our friendly shores in July 2016. Kickstarter’s arrival allowed Singaporean innovators the convenience of funding their inventions right here in Singapore. Will Singapore produce the next Pebble Watch or the next Oculus Rift virtual reality goggles?
While these innovators have the freedom to create any new product from games to videos to technology, it is ultimately the backers who facilitates the success of these products. Along the way, it reveals the preference of a nation more than you can imagine. Now that we are in the fourth month of Kickstarter’s arrival, it is time to see what are the projects that flopped and those which made it big.
Projects That Made It
Let us begin with the projects that were successful in Singapore. Before I begin, it is important to set expectations right. There are no million dollar projects in Singapore and the top funded project did not cross $300,000. Perhaps this is the reflection of the young startup environment in Singapore.
The most ridiculous project is project number 4 which sought to raise an eye popping S$100,000 for scented colour pencil. Even the top local Kickstarter technology project asked for only $50,000. That aside, the owner tried to sell meditation along with coloring.
I am all for meditation and colouring but these are not likely to be the product that would excite anyone. She would have better luck starting a meetup colouring event in her bid to find funders for the sake of wellness. Otherwise, she can go the traditional route of getting a loan for her project.
So why did the lofty idea of creating a social media site to share interior design fail to take off? Well, the simple fact is that there is already a local version called Qanvast which allows you to see all the actual designs and they are actively used by professional interior designers. What is it about ‘E-commerce Home Design’ that stood out? Nothing.
The same explanation applies to SELL IT. They are a copycat version of Carousell
which had raised $41.8 million so far to expand to 13 cities in Asia. They would be more successful in selling their idea and a share of their company to a professional web developer in return for a functioning website and application.
There are no lack of professionally produced anime on platforms like YouTube and Vimeo. I did not read any compelling features to back this project except for the fact that the creator is only 15 years old!
Conclusion
Most Singaporeans come to Kickstarter to get a product which they can’t get in the real world or to get it cheaper by being the early backer. This defined the success of the 5 products above and the lack of these 2 crucial features. After reading this, you would have an idea of what works and what doesn’t work in the Kickstarter scene in Singapore.
Hopefully, this would save time for everyone as the low probability projects would be shelved before they are being published. Then again, I might be wrong and there might be a surprise anime hit from Kickstarter Singapore.