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Only one in ten Indiegogo projects reach their funding goal, with around 80 percent of projects falling short of a quarter of their target.
This is a far cry from rival crowdfunding platform Kickstarter, on which over 44 percent of projects meet or exceed their goals according to research conducted by The Verge.
While the Ubuntu Edge smartphone has succeeded in smashing crowdfunding records on Indiegogo, raising $3.4 million in under 24 hours, even the Edge is projected to fall short of its $32 million goal.
This, Indiegogo pointed out to Polygon, doesn’t mean Indiegogo projects aren’t successful, as all projects on the platform receive funding regardless of their target figure.
This means projects can safely ask for a higher budget than might reasonably be attained, but if they hit that target figure will owe only 4 percent to Indiegogo as compared with the 9 percent demanded if they only achieve partial funding.
Kickstarter certainly offers projects more traffic, and users are assured of a better screening process, but the figures alone don’t tell the whole story.
One former Treyarch developer launched a $1 Kickstarter project in May, saying he intended to complete the game no matter what, but thought it would be irresponsible to do so without gauging consumer interest.
If the project raised enough money, he would add more content and hire other developers.
“In other words, I don’t need your money. But I need your money,” he said.
This is exactly the sort of campaign Indiegogo targets with its more flexible funding options.
The new figures do suggest bigger projects with more defined goals are more successful on Kickstarter, but a developer with a more flexible project may still find what they’re looking for on another platform.
