Kickstarter Coming to Australia and New Zealand

Nothing has quite transformed the 'crowd funding' story like Kickstarter — and it seems they have just cryptically announced their arrival in New Zealand and Australia.

"Kickstarter will open up to Australia — and New Zealand-based projects in the very near future," it says on their website. "Tell us what kind of project you're interested in launching, and we'll make sure you're the first to know when everything's ready."

While not providing a wealth of detail, it indicates the imminent arrival of this global innovator, responsible for a wave of projects including; films, music, stage shows, comics, journalism and video games, funded entirely by donations from members of the public. Driven largely by the viral nature of the internet, Kickstarter allows those with an idea to connect with vast numbers of potential donors — pitching their topline concept to the world and receiving small (or large) amounts of financial support for varying promised degrees of return on investment — or none at all.

A few recent-ish examples include Rob Thomas's Veronica Mars movie, or a film in the works by Zach Braff of Scrubs fame. Either way, given our relatively successful technology and film development market, we imagine there's more than a few mobile app, film or other assorted projects and people that will jump on board with creative concepts — ideally giving us another reason to brag overseas about our standing on the global stage.