Analysis of the reasons for the low success of crowdfunding in Myanmar

Although crowdfunding is well-known and widely used globally, there is no denying that it is not yet friendly with the people in Myanmar. Crowdfunding is the process of raising funds for an individual or an organization. Crowdfunding is used to raise or collect the required amount of capital whether to start a new business or to expand the current operating business. 

The advantage of the Crowdfunding process is that it is a profitable opportunity not only for the crowdfunding campaign creator but also for the fundraising supporter. The fundraising supporters will get rewards given by the campaign creators. 

As a result of not being widely known in Myanmar, crowdfunding campaigns are relatively unsuccessful through they are mutually beneficial campaigns. Now, we will provide the analysis of the reasons for the low rate of successful campaigns and the results of the campaigns in Myanmar based on the only crowdfunding platform in Myanmar, Su See Yar (https://suseeyar.com).

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(1) Myanmar Culture

To be open, almost everyone says Myanmar people are compassionate, generous, and willing to help others, but in reality, these attitudes are not uncommon in the business industry. Myanmar people’s attitude of compassionate and generous are only for the poor and needy or elderly and children. 

Compared to the people from other countries, if the entrepreneur shows his or her ideas to the public or launches a campaign to raise the required amount of funds, they will be as generous as possible and support the campaign, regardless of the reward from the campaign creator. But in Myanmar, the culture of the Myanmar people is that if someone comes up with such a great idea, they are afraid that someone close to them will use their ideas, and they are not interested in supporting as soon as they know that you are asking for help to do business, not for food/ and suffering. Myanmar is a country that has been struggling for itself since the unrest of the country. 

(2) The difficulty of the crowdfunding campaign creator

Resulting in a successful campaign also depends on the campaign creator. To succeed in the created campaign, it is essential to share the information about the campaign or the meaning of crowdfunding with friends, family, or colleagues by the campaign owner. Another attitude of Myanmar people is that they are afraid that their income, business, or their problems will be known. As the saying goes “Don’t take your problems out of others”, they are solving their problems as a secret. 

Crowdfunding platforms have donors from nationwide. Donors who want to support crowdfunding campaigns may emerge if crowdfunding is well-known in the country, but people in Myanmar are not familiar with crowdfunding due to a lack of knowledge and information. Campaign owners also tend to rely on foreign donors for fear of being known at home. 

(3) Reward and Discount

On crowdfunding platforms, saying “this is not just a donation, donors can also get discount coupons to buy products cheaply as a reward” when it comes to crowdfunding campaigns that raise or collect the required amount of funds is also one of the facts that less success of the crowdfunding campaigns. Regarding campaign rewards – 

(1) Available offer provided by the Campaign Owner

As the campaign owner create the crowdfunding campaign to collect the required amount of funds for his or her business, there is a limit to the amount of discount he or she can offer. (For example, offer to buy a 6,000 kyats item at a price of 5,000 kyats or 10,000 kyats item at a price of 8,000 kyats) Campaign creators are not able to repay 20,000 kyats to get 10,000 kyats of support and cannot also afford this amount of range as they are offering as many discounts as possible. It is difficult to offer rewards more than the provided discounts.

(2) The perspective of the Campaign Supporter

The word “Fundraising” is well-known by locals when organizations launch fundraising campaigns to collect their capital according to the current issues in Myanmar. 

Organizations offer a ticket with a certain price range which has a chance to win a valuable item to donors who participate in their fundraising campaign. When the donor won his ticket in the lucky draw, he has a possibility to receive something more valuable than his donated amount or a souvenir. This is the closest example to the current situation. 

But in Crowdfunding Campaigns, the less interesting the campaign is, if the reward item is less interesting or less profitable for the donors. It is not very popular to help others regardless of the reward when it comes to crowdfunding in the country.  

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(4) Celebrity and Trust

As everyone knows, trust is very important for every task. People will be more interested and trust the live donation activities by celebrities to help the poor which are based on compassion, than the Fundraising Campaign which is created to raise or collect funds for the business. As a result of the current political and economic situation, donations are less than before and trust has been greatly weakened by lies. 

(5) Crowdfunding Platforms and Paying Percentage 

This is a very important issue to explain to campaign creators. Under the headline “Charity”, many people want the full amount of their raised and collected funds through crowdfunding platforms. Donors also thought that campaign owners should the full amount of the collected funds as they only support the campaign owners. In addition, they thought of crowdfunding platforms as social organizations. 

Crowdfunding platforms collect a small percentage of the cost of creating a campaign from the collected funds. This, too, is thought by some to be a mockery of donations. It has been quite an explanation that the collected percentage is only for the platform costs and online transaction fees.

Even regular donations also have the recipient of the donation amount. You will have to pay when you buy food for donation. And so, you will have to pay the cost of buying material for donating a building and for the carpenter as well. Similarly, the collected percentage amount means the cost of operating the campaign on the crowdfunding platform. It’s like asking the food seller and carpenter not to make money as it is for donation.  

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(6) Crowdfunding and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)

Those in charge of the CSR program from international companies to local and other companies thought of the crowdfunding process as the Corporate Social Responsibilities (CSR) Program. One of the companies that have contacted Su See Yar, a Crowdfunding Platform in Myanmar, once said that according to the CSR program, their company is interested in donating to people in need of help, food, and shelter in intruder area that is connected with Su See Yar, and they would like to record the donation activity. However, there were no plans to support current operating campaigns on the Su See Yar platform which need financial support to run the business. This can be taken into account that crowdfunding and CSR programs are still misunderstood in the country. 

Soon, crowdfunding will become a necessity in Myanmar. Although it has the potential to be widely started on various platforms, it is currently a difficult business to operate. 

Despite these difficulties, some crowdfunding campaigns are still operating. People who want to start a crowdfunding campaign to run their business or those interested in launching a crowdfunding platform can also contact Myanmar Tech Press’s Official Facebook Page (www.facebook.com/myanmartechpress).