Kickstarter launched in the UK

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-20145764

by halfmoth • 14 years ago

68 24 14 years ago

bbc.co.uk

roschdal• 14 years ago

Great! Does this mean that one can use Kiskstarter to fund projects in UK only, or the whole of EU?

rmc3• 14 years ago

No, their terms state that you have to be a UK resident etc.

peterjs• 14 years ago

I've recently came across a project from Stockholm [1]. They went live before the UK announcement, so I suppose they set up a US entity.

[1] http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/martinkallstrom/memoto-l...

xvolter• 14 years ago

If you want all of EU, use another service, like Indiegogo, which has been international since day one.

rmc3• 14 years ago

The terms require:

To be eligible to start a Kickstarter project as a UK creator, you need to meet the following requirements:

• You are a permanent UK resident either creating a project in your own name or on behalf of a legal entity with a Companies House Number.

• You have a UK address, UK bank account, and government-issued ID (driver's license or passport).

• You have a major UK credit or debit card.

• You are 18 years of age or older.

How come they can exclude non-UK EU people? Isn't there a single market within the EU?

zachinglis• 14 years ago

I suspect it's a legal minefield and much easier said, than done.

rmc3• 14 years ago

I was hoping that it would be a legal minefield to ban EU customers. The EU has lots of laws to make harmonise business law, so in theory it should be OK.

martin-adams2• 14 years ago

While I'm only speculating, a company can choose not to offer their service in a particular country. I imagine their exclusion is due to the overhead of administration than any legal exclusions.

marbletiles• 14 years ago

No, companies can't refuse to sell to another EU citizen based solely on their country. But Kickstarter's going to be in all sorts of grey areas, based on what they do.

kami8845• 14 years ago

>• You have a UK address, UK bank account, and government-issued ID (driver's license or passport).

So as a Spanish guy working in the UK I could use kickstarter as well?

alexkus2• 14 years ago

If you satisfy the requirements listed above then yes.

As an EU citizen (I assume you have a Spanish Passport) then you automatically have the right to permanently reside in the UK:-

http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/eucitizens/documents-eea-n...

"Under European law, you do not need to obtain documentation confirming your right of residence in the UK if you are a national of a country in the EEA."

However, as you'll see from the list, having this right isn't all you'll need. You actually have to be living in the UK, have a UK bank account, etc. It's unclear as to whether the "Government-issued ID" relates to the UK Government or any other country's Government.

thisone• 14 years ago

depends on their definition of "You are a permanent UK resident"

For non-British citizens living in the UK, that particular phrase can mean almost anything.

I've seen it mean "You must have lived in the UK for the last 2 years", "You must have ILR", "You must be naturalized", "You must have a visa with longer than {x} months/years left on it"

Kurtz79• 14 years ago

As a EU citizen, you can freely move to UK and get all of the above.

EU is still not a fiscal union, so that any profits deriving from a kickstarter project are to be subjected to UK taxes.

viraptor• 14 years ago

> ... and government-issued ID (driver's license or passport).

This may be the hard part. Not everyone can get a driving license easily and for a UK passport you need to live/work in the country for at least 5 years.

moconnor2• 14 years ago

The place of residence is almost certainly a taxation issue. Within the EU, an EU citizen pays tax in whichever country he is "ordinarily resident" in, which is (broadly) defined as the address in which he spends over 6 months of the year.

If Kickstarter Ltd in the UK funded a project run from Spain, there would be additional complications as the Spanish government has the right to tax some portion of that income.

gabemart• 14 years ago

One thing that I didn't see explicitly mentioned in the article: I really, really hope they don't segment the marketplaces. In other words, I really hope it's possible to log into Kickstarter UK with your Kickstarter US details and use the same payment details to support UK projects. I also hope the set up transparent currency conversion. Otherwise, the value proposition of Kickstarter to UK startups is radically lower.

I do a little bit of work than involves some ad networks and affiliate programs, and I find it astonishing how segmented commercial networks still can be.

For example, Amazon referrals only track to the country TLD you sent the traffic to. Refer someone to Amazon.com and the buy the product from Amazon UK after following the link prompt that appears on the landing page? You get nothing.

TomAnthony• 14 years ago

The projects located in London (in £GBP):

http://www.kickstarter.com/discover/cities/london-gbr

makomk• 14 years ago

Weirdly, some of those projects actually predate the official availability of Kickstarter in the UK by quite a while.

wildbunny• 14 years ago

My retro 2D MMO is one of the first UK projects accepted on Kickstarter :)

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1375039912/mmoasteroids-...

Kickstarter launched in the UK

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