JD Finance crowd-funding platform becomes 'ecosystem'

China crowd-funding platforms are transforming to incubators, as JD Finance, the largest crowd-funding platform in China, on Nov 26 integrated its resources into an innovative ecosystem at its annual "Bigger" crowd-funding meeting in Shenzhen.

Chen Shengqiang, CEO of JD Finance, said the ecosystem provides financial investment, training and consultation on marketing, branding and selling for innovative projects.

Ma Tao, senior analyst of Analysys, a Beijing-based data analysis provider, told China Daily that a transformation from crowd-funding to incubator platforms has become a trend.

However, JD Finance said its "ecosystem" is more than an incubator. Chen said crowd-funding should help companies find its product's market position rather than a business model, fundraising or pre-sales.

Gao Hongsi, general manager of JD Product Crowd-Funding Division, further explained that they will meet the demand for customized products, which is hard for customers to find in traditional industry.

JD earlier this year launched a sector called "Jianhuo", where a startup proposes an idea, customers offer their comments on the idea and then the startup realizes these ideas accordingly. Gao described the process as a leap from crowd-funding to crowd-making.

Analyst Ma said traditional crowd-funding focuses on attracting users and investors through product and idea exhibition, while an incubator focuses on resources support to the early-stage of startups, but JD combined these both.

Since July 2014 to this month, JD has raised about 1.2 billion yuan for over 3,000 projects, accounting for 60 percent of China's crowd-funding industry.

According to WDZJ.com, an internet financing information website, China had 218 crowd-funding platforms in October, attracting more than four million investors.

Ma disclosed the successful rate of JD's crowd-funding platforms is about 80 percent, while the average of overseas crowd-funding platforms is under 50 percent.

While JD's crowd-funding platform has yet to make a profit, Ma promised it will not charge a commission or training fee for innovative projects.