What is Crowdfunding in relation to Social Media and the Internet? And what are the risks involved?

Crowdfunding is an open call, essentially through the Internet, for the provision of financial resources either in the form of donation or in exchange or some form of reward and/or voting rights in order to support initiatives for specific purposes (a practice in which a community pools money to finance certain activities).

Crowdfunding  has developed greatly with the advance of social media. It emerged at the start of this millennium and gained traction over the first decade aided by the development of Web2.0 and social networks.

Risks involved in crowdfunding include fraud, repayment and liquidity risks.