Crowdfunding site’s initiative to promote sex tech falls short.
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Crowdfunding has been a true game changer for sex technology and innovation. When the popular money raising concept was introduced, the egalitarians in many of us rejoiced at the idea of having a direct stake in the development of products we want in our hands—and elsewhere.
Unfortunately, sex products have traveled a bumpy road in the crowdfunding world. Kickstarter has shied away from allowing campaigns for sex tech—despite the rising popularity and social acceptance of sex toys and aids. Enter Indiegogo, a platform that’s allowed fundraising for both mainstream and sex tech products with great success. Remember Eva? The little wearable vibrator that could (and can!) raised over $800,000. There is a significant market here.
To take greater advantage of the growing interest in sex product invention, the website has now launched Indiegogo After Dark—a collection of all of its sex tech campaigns. Prospective crowdfunders can now easily find their future sexual fulfillment.
Hidden pleasures
Well, not entirely easily. Yes, the After Dark collection is a great grouping to draw attention to hitherto hidden products. However, Indiegogo might still be a little shy. At this point, Indiegogo does not list After Dark on its main Collections page. Without the direct link to the After Dark collection, it’s not easy to find. Even browsing the Explore section is challenging because it doesn’t feature a sex tech category or obvious internal links to such related products.
Vincent Lee, founder and CEO of Vitafun—which currently has a campaign to fund its His & Her Smart Interactive Sex Toys on Indiegogo—explains why the visibility of crowdfunding adult products is so necessary:
“It allows more interaction with potential users in social media, so that they feel that you are real. General users rarely share information about toys to their friends. Letting the fans help you spread the idea is not realistic; you have to try to get to more potential users.”
One-stop crowdfunding is a great idea if you’re keen to support sex tech and innovation, but the site needs to take things one step further. To truly demonstrate a commitment to the sex products that have raised over $2 million on the platform (and these are just the ones currently listed), and to live up to its reputation as the adult-friendly crowdfunding space, Indiegogo needs to list After Dark with the other collections.
Image source: Indiegogo
this is how we got started:)