LO2: Crowdfunding & Crowdsourced Projects

Crowdfunded Product - Ouya

The Ouya is an Android-based games console developed by Ouya Inc. Development was funded via Kickstarter, raising $8.5 million and becoming the website's fifth-highest earning project in its history at the time, and is currently eighth.

In terms of reaching its funding goal, Ouya was successful. Its target was $950,000, its total amount of funding was over $8.5 million. However, in terms of the console its self, it was not a success. Early reviews for the system were far from stellar, and game developers reported that for all their effort, it was pretty much impossible to make any money. Within two years of the console being released, it had become almost unheard of as it had no real target market.

The Ouya was advertised heavily on social media. The official Ouya twitter account was extremely active and paid Twitter to promote tweets advertising the console. Ouya was also heavily advertised on YouTube. The company behind the games console paid a number of popular YouTube channels to produce videos featuring the Ouya console; whether that be reviewing it or simply playing games on it and talking about it in a positive way. 

Crowdsourced Product - Fiat Mio

In 2009, Fiat Brazil asked people to help design their next car. More than 11,000 ideas were submitted over Twitter and Facebook from 120 countries. By 2010, the Mio concept car was born. It has since won numerous car show awards and gained Fiat national recognition in car design. 

Fiat launched a website inviting people to help create a car for the future, and design the world's first crowdsourced car. Websites like AgenciaClick were used to help design and advertise ideas for the car and funding was provided by Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, the conglomerate behind the Fiat car company.

The project was successful. More than 17,000 participants from around the world submitted more than 11,000 ideas. The ideas were studied and interpreted by Fiat and resulted in a briefing to build the Fiat Mio Concept Car, the world’s first crowdsourced car, based on the ideas and needs of the users. Between January and February of 2010, Fiat began the construction of the Fiat Mio; it was unveiled at the Sao Paolo Auto Show in October 2010.