从Etsy的成功看膜拜自我潮流的商机

    显而易见，很多消费者也越来越把自己视为创作者。未来一些年，希望产品和服务能大获成功的企业不仅需要明白这一点，更要拥抱和推动这股趋势。

    为何这种现象随处可见？从最根本来说，消费者希望能实现用品的个性化，试图给现成的科技产品打上自己的标签。尤其在社交媒体领域，消费者变身创作者的例子比比皆是。例如，Facebook的统计显示，每个用户平均每月创作90条原创文字或图片内容。在商业化的平台上走得更远的是Etsy，这个在线交易网站把手工艺品的制作者——通常是个人或小企业——与全球潜在买家连接了起来。Etsy的销售统计数据反映了消费者/创作者趋势的日盛，而且该公司刚刚融得4000万美元的风险投资（投资者包括Accel Partners、Union Square Ventures等等）用于国际扩张。2012年3月，该网站卖出了6,280万美元的货物（剔除退款和订单取消因素），同比增长41.5%。当月，货物销售数量同比增长34%。任何公司老板都会乐于看到这样的增幅，不管是哪个行业。

    其次，全球范围内“创客运动”（Maker's Movement）日渐火爆，甚至连大型跨国公司也开始参与其中。如果你还不知道这一趋势，这就是一群人利用周末、午休和其他闲暇时间在车库、卧室里进行的自己动手做（DIY）工程。曾几何时，这项运动只是科技迷、甚至计算机迷圈子里的“另类”文化，如今已开始出现在服务于专业建筑师和设计师的欧特克（Autodesk）公司的PPT演示中，甚至是通用电气（General Electric）公司中。比如，通用电气近年来一直主办GE Garages，这一实验性资源帮助普通人鼓捣各种技术进行创作。换言之，通用电气正在拥抱创客运动的“非主流”精神，而不是与之竞争。而且，这一运动在全球范围内都在快速发展。在中国，第一届“制汇节”——基本上是DIY机器人爱好者和其他工程师的大会——今年4月在深圳举行。在意大利罗马，今春也举行了一项类似的大会。

    It's easy to see that many consumers are increasingly seeing themselves as creators, too. Companies that will launch successful products and services in coming years will not only understand this phenomenon, but also embrace and enable it.

    The reasons why are all around us. On the most basic level, consumers are interested in personalizing their gadgets, an attempt at making off-the-shelf technology their own. In the realm of social media, especially, examples of the consumer as creator abound. On Facebook, for instance, the average user creates 90 pieces of content each month, in terms of original photos and posts, according to the company. And on a larger, commercial stage, there's Etsy, the online marketplace that connects makers of handmade goods -- usually individuals or small businesses -- with potential buyers around the globe. Etsy's sales statistics reflect the growing wave of consumer/creators, and the company just raised $40 million in venture financing (from Accel Partners, Union Square Ventures, and others) for international expansion. The site sold $62.8 million worth goods (after refunds and cancellations) in March 2012, up 41.5% from the same time last year. The number of items sold was up 34% from March 2011. Any business leader would be pleased with those growth figures, no matter what the industry.

    And then, there is a strong interest brewing worldwide in terms of the Maker's Movement, even among large, multinational corporations. If you're not aware of this trend, it's about the do-it-yourself engineering that happens in garages and bedrooms, on weekends and during lunch breaks and other moments of free time. Once considered an "alternative" culture in the realm of tech geeks and even hackers, the Maker's Movement is now being mentioned in PowerPoint presentations at Autodesk (ADSK), the software company that caters to professional architects and designers, and even in the halls of General Electric (GE). GE, for instance, has been hosting GE Garages, a lab-like resource that helps everyday people tinker with technologies and invent products. In other words, GE is embracing the "indie" spirit of the Maker's Movement rather than competing with it. And it's a movement that's gaining steam worldwide. In China, the first Maker's Faire -- essentially a conference for DIY robotics fans and other engineers -- took place in April in Shenzen, and in Rome, Italy, a similar event took place this spring.