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The Power of the 'Like' Button: Social Media Effect on Internet Financing

Online crowdfunding platforms are becoming a very popular venue for small and medium-sized businesses and individuals to raise funds in the Fintech world. Creators depend heavily on social media such as Facebook “like” to publicize their projects. However, there are mixed views on the value of such virtual presence. This research examines the social media effect on the outcome of crowdfunding projects on Kickstarter. Our empirical results suggest that social media activities exert a significant and positive effect on the success likelihood of fundraising. More importantly, the social media effect follows a J-curve in the temporal space, where it is stronger in the opening and closing periods of the fundraising process. Especially in the “last mile”, social media generates a persistent acceleration to help crowdfunding projects reach the fundraising objectives. These results provide useful implications to literature and in practice.