Crowdfunding companies look to Alibaba for their next big idea

A company called Frank wants its backers to feel good about buying into its crowdfunding campaign for a new Android phone. Its Indiegogo page is filled with videos emphasizing that the young team at Frank — one co-founder is 17 years old — is subverting "the man" by going around big-name phone manufacturers to release an affordable, decent device. It's a nice idea to sell people on, but it's one that relies on a clever crowdfunding workaround: the Frank team didn’t do most of the work. Instead, they sourced prototype designs and manufacturers through Alibaba.

Although the campaign has only been live for a day, Android Police has already published a takedown of the company saying, essentially, the device is a scam. You can read all of A...

Continue reading…