Kickstarter has grown considerably over the past few years, not just in the number and breadth of projects, but in the amounts raised. A few projects have now passed the million dollar mark, and very soon we'll get the chance to see if any projects will pass the million pound mark. If you happen to be one of the many creative or entrepreneurial individuals living across the pond, there is good news just around the corner: Kickstarter will be accepting projects from the U.K. beginning this fall thanks to the expansion of Amazon payments.
The Verge is reporting this thanks to a tweet:
The news comes by way of a tweet from Kickstarter, and few details are available at the moment. A 2009 post on the site's official blog says that the service was previously limited to project creators with US mailing addresses and bank accounts because that was the only place where Amazon Payments was available, but that doesn't appear to be a problem any longer since that service recently launched in the UK.
This is good news for many people, especially those that have projects that are almost in the funding stage who might have had to go elsewhere to find money. We've already talked about Kickstarter's decision to stick with crowdfunding and not get into crowdinvesting, so this is a natural expansion for them as a company.
On the other hand, Kickstarter's largest competitor, Indiegogo, has not given a definitive answer whether they will venture into crowdinvesting. It would certainly bring on new challenges, but for a company that just raised $15 million dollars, it might make sense as a way to distinguish themselves from Kickstarter. Indiegogo has already been available in the U.K., but now that Kickstarter has decided to make its way across the sea, there is going to be a lot more competition in the crowdfunding space.
What do you think about Kickstarter's reliance on Amazon payments -- should they continue doing this or move on to their own payment platform to allow worldwide access? Should Indiegogo move into the crowdinvesting space to compete?
[via The Verge]
