If I am doing my math correctly $480,000,000 x 5% = $24,000,000... Which is a pretty nice payday for Charles Adler, Perry Chen and Yancey Strickler.
It seems the majority of the industry is missing (or intentionally glossing over) the lack of accountability and due diligence by the trio... A great place to start is the fact that Kickstarter ToS requires creators to be residents in the US, UK, Canada, Austrailia or New Zealand... go ahead and do a search there are projects from every corner of the globe.
My concern has nothing to do with exclusivity and everything to do with leveling the playing field; the fact is creators are manipulating the rules and gaming the system - I looked at 40 of the top funded technology projects, 10 of them were actually offshore factories presenting as individual creators... 8.4 million.
Others just blatantly flaunt the manipulation of the system and some even write a how-to manual like these guys:
http://www.xenonauts.com/kickstarter.htmlIf crowdfunding is going to be marketed as a viable solution for small businesses and a key player in the economic recovery than it is imperative that the cash flow remains in the countries it belongs in so that new jobs can indeed be created... otherwise we are just running in the same hamster wheel.