Crowdfunding: the role of Internet in alternative ways of financing on the example of Oculus Rift

Abstract

U ovom će se radu prezentirati i analizirati nekoliko pojmova poput: Crowdfunding, Kickstarter, Online zajednice, Virtualna stvarnost i Oculus rift. Osim teorijskog dijela, u radu je prezentiran model financiranja projekta putem crowdfunding platforme uz pomoć online društvene zajednice sa definiranjem svih relevantnih pojmova. Taj model služi u analizi financiranja specifičnog projekta koji je tema ovog rada – Oculus rift sistema za virtualnu stvarnost. Na temelju zaključaka vidljivo je da sprega crowdfunding financiranja projekta uz korištenje online društvenih zajednica kao oslonca ili čak ravnopravnog partnera može biti jedan od isplativijih i najmanje rizičnih načina pokretanja poslovanja.In this paper concepts such as Crowdfunding, Kickstarter, online communities, virtual reality and Oculus Rift are going to be presented and explored. In addition to the theoretical part of this paper, a model of financing through crowdfunding platform with the help of an online community with defining of all important concepts is presented. This model is used in the analysis of the finincing of the specific project which is the subject of this paper – the Oculus Rift virtual reality system. Based on the conclusions, it is evident that the combination of crowdfunding with the help of social networking communities as the support or yet, an as equal partner can be one of the cost-effective and least risky ways of starting a business