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Under Title III, companies wishing to sell stock to the public will have to provide information to investors and the S.E.C., including financial disclosures that grow more extensive as the size of the offerings increases. They will be allowed to sell stock only through an intermediary: either a broker-dealer or a specialized crowdfunding Web site, or portal. The intermediaries will have to take steps to ensure that small investors are protected, even from themselves. The law limits how much a person can invest in crowdfunding in a year, depending on income and net worth.

protection measures could, if fully adopted, make crowdfunding prohibitively expensive.

Today our largest marketplaces are for website templates as well as Adobe After Effects templates. When you go to the movies and see cool trailers, you are probably watching something that was made in Adobe After Effects. We also have background music marketplaces which is often used in advertising. The marketplaces are very much an exchange. We branched out from Flash into several design marketplaces.

chicken-and-egg

Our approach was to do a grassroots marketing campaign. We started with content we created ourselves, and we commissioned a little bit of content ourselves. Based on that content, we went over to other sites and started chatting with people to get them to check us out.

The experiment found that on an apples-to-apples basis, posting local content drove stronger levels of shares, likes and comments than global content. 

We found that during the first four months of this experiment, the average engagement rate across all geo-focused posts was six times higher than all global posts.

They identified nine different types of story that drove higher levels of engagement as shown in this infographic.  

This could be a better practice since it creates a separation of powers. Instead of blindly donating, you can see someone in your community or across the world is in need and set up a page in their name to collect funds for them. This allows those who are too busy to volunteer to feel more active in the donation process. They are able to see the effect of their funds and can even reach out to the person in need after they have donated. 

I realized the Internet does a great job at connecting us with our friends and family, but a terrible job at introducing us to new people and getting us offline.

It’s incredibly difficult and frustrating trying to find like-minded people nearby.

When you look at what people are searching for, they’re searching for people close by who share their interests.

According to the company, 55 percent of its users are female, with 85 percent under the age of 35, 55 percent under 25. Illustrating the healthy engagement levels, 30 percent of members return daily, 100 percent of members to date have added photos, and 25 percent filled profile out their profile completely.

“I’m continually impressed at how well they understand human nature and their ability to take existing behaviors and move them online.”

Meeting new people can be intimidating. Sites that offer a bit of intelligent matchmaking have the potential to simplify this process