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The More, the Merrier? The Bystander Effect on Crowdfunding Platforms

in one day, and it seems that some campaigns perform much better than the rest of the
campaigns.
Our unreported results further indicate that approximately 29.62% of our
observations are in the society and culture (C6) category, and 21.38% of observations are

in the product design (C1) category. Technology application (C7) and music and film (C2)
account for 9.45% and 8.59% of our sample, respectively. These four categories account
for approximately 70% of our sample.

We also examine whether there are differences in several key project characteristics
among these project categories. With regard to the project success rate (i.e., whether the
project reaches the funding goal at the end of the campaign), we find that projects in the
music and film (C2) category and the society and culture (C6) category have the highest
success rate (= 68.42%). By contrast, campaigns in the art and performance (C3) category

and the food and drink (C8) category have 16.67% and 25% success rates, respectively.
Moreover, the average funding goal is the highest in the technology application (C7)
category, with an average of NT$519,888. A possible reason could be that most project

creators seek a relatively large amount of funds to develop and manufacture specific prod-
ucts such as headphones and electric unicycles. Project creators in the travel (C9) and
product design (C1) categories request a lower amount of capital, i.e., NT$122,250 and
NT$153,196, respectively. Project creators in the product design (C1) category ask for
funding to make leather bags or wallets.

As for the bystander ratio variable, we find that the average bystander ratio in the
entertainment (C4) category and the technology application (C7) category are 0.6399 and
0.6363, respectively. Most investors seem to have a “wait-and-see” attitude in these cam-

paigns. This is probably because while supporters in the technology application categories
are interested in the project, they are still evaluating the rewards and considering whether
products are worth the prices they pay. By contrast, projects in writing and publication (C5)
and society and culture (C6) categories have relatively lower bystander ratios, i.e., 0.3104
and 0.3286, respectively. Given the relatively low bystander ratio in the writing and publi-

cation (C5) category, it seems to show that crowd investors are more generous in providing
funding to cultural projects, which is consistent with findings in Mollick and Nanda (2016).
Moreover, the lower bystander ratio in the society and culture category implies that once

supporters pay attention to a project consistent with their own beliefs or ideologies, they

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