Crowdfunding Practices in the World and Turkey

Crowdfunding, based on the sharing economy model, involves raising small amounts of money from many individuals to finance a specific activity. Although it is often seen as a new model through digital platforms, similar examples can be found in history. For instance, the French public’s donations for the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty or Voltaire’s campaign to fund the publication of "Candide" can be considered early forms of crowdfunding. However, its widespread adoption, with a systematic structure and broad access, became possible in the 2000s due to the growth of the internet. As internet infrastructure strengthened and financial systems digitalized, the process became more efficient and accessible. Among the four main categories of crowdfunding models today, individual and social support campaigns are the most common, with the GoFundMe platform being the most well-known example. In Turkey, legal regulations in this area were introduced in 2017 and 2019, and various initiatives and platforms have been established in parallel. The CrowdSpace database analyzed 195 platforms based on variables such as sector, fund type, country of operation, payment method, and total fund volume. The findings indicate that a significant portion of these platforms are focused on SMEs, ventures/startups, and real estate, while platforms with fund volumes of $1 billion or more specialize in investment-intensive areas such as real estate, P2P lending, startup financing, and tokenized assets. Furthermore, bank transfers are found to be the predominant payment method, with European-based platforms prominently featured in the continental distribution. This study aims to fill a gap in the literature by comparing international platform structures with practices in Turkey. The findings demonstrate that crowdfunding is a rising tool in the digital finance ecosystem, and that strengthening the regulatory framework, in particular, is critical to its sustainability.