Kickstarter got a big boost in 2014, with 3.3 million backers pledging a record $529 million to fund pet projects.
In all, 22,252 projects were funded through the crowdfunding site by supporters from around the world, Kickstarter announced Jan. 5. Nine categories had more than 1,000 projects successfully funded.
Music topped the list with 4,009 projects funded, followed by 3,846 film and video projects and 2,064 publishing projects. Other popular categories were games, design, art, food, technology and theater.
One of several crowdfunding platforms, Kickstarter allows people to gather money from the public to fund particular projects. Project creators choose a deadline and minimum funding goal and, if the goal is not met, no funds are collected.
Among Kickstarter’s top projects in 2014 were rock star Neil Young’s Pono music player, which raised $6.2 million, and the Reading Rainbow educational TV series, which raised $5.4 million.
More than 62,000 people pledged a total of $13.3 million for inventor Ryan Grepper’s party cooler, a funding record for Kickstarter. Other attention-getting projects were a smartphone-controlled airplane and a device that fills up 100 water balloons in one second.
Technology related projects raised the most money – $125 million. Design projects generated the second highest amount ($89.1 million) and film and video projects came in third with $66.4 million. Overall, more than $1,000 a minute was pledged for the year.
Donors came from all corners of the world, with the United States accounting for $335 million in pledges from 2.2 million people, by far the most of any country. By contrast, the United Kingdom generated $39.9 million; Canada did $27.7 million.
August was the top month for successfully funded projects (2,311), followed by October (2,033) and November (1,980), according to a Kickstarter report. January was the least active month, with 1,242 projects.
Pledges peaked on Wednesdays and bottomed out on Sundays, with early afternoon being the most popular time of the day to pledge. The single, most popular hour was from 11 a.m. to noon on Wednesday, Mar. 12, when backers gave nearly $400,000 for Young’s project. That amounted to a whopping $110 per second.
Founded in 2009 and based in New York City, Kickstarter was named Forbes’ magazine’s “Best Websites of 2011 and “Best Inventions of 2010.” Over the years, it has received more than $1 billion in pledges.
