股权众筹是否真的那么美——基于美国制度缺陷的再思考

Is Equity Crowdfunding Really So Agreeable?——Rethinking Based on Defects of the US Mechanism

股权众筹作为初创企业采用的一种利用互联网向大众募集小额资本的融资方式,以"脱媒式"对接投融资双方的优势,利用互联网的人群聚集与信息广泛传播效应,降低投融资方之间沟通成本,有助于投融资意向的快速达成。2012年美国JOBS法案的高调出台,吸引了全球范围内的广泛关注。但股权众筹制度在美国已受到诸多批判,除信息披露要求弱化引发的欺诈风险增加外,在注重前端融资效率的同时却忽略了投资端的设计和保护,尤其是众筹股权的流通和退出问题等。美国立法与实践领域对于这些问题尚未取得彻底的突破。股权众筹以美国模式为样板引入中国,在遭遇中国固有法律体系及制度的困扰后,中国股权众筹实践陷入更多困境。通过对美国相关制度出台的背景及存在的不足进行分析,对照中国实践,锁定实践中产生的新问题,并深入探讨现有解决路径能否真正缓解这些不足,以期对股权众筹制度重新进行明确的定位。

Equity crowdfunding is a method of fund raising by startups utilizing the internet to raise small amount of money from the public. The disintermediation advantage thereof would help to directly connect both the investing and financing parties with less communication costs. The rapid achievement in crowdfunding investment process attributes to the crowd gathering and information spreading effects of internet. The promulgation of JOBS Act of the US in 2012 drew extensive attention from all over the world,while the defects of equity crowdfunding mechanism also drew extensive criticism in the US. Weaken information disclosure requirements increase risk of fraud,and strengthen front-end fund raising efficiency brings about negligence in the design and protection of the rear-end investment, especially for the liquidity and exit venue of the crowdfunded shares,which have not yet been thoroughly solved by the US legislative and practical sections. The Chinese equity crowdfunding operation borrows immensely from the US model,but encounters much more challenges facing the intrinsic Chinese legal mechanism and regime. Thus, it would help to analyze the background of the US equity crowdfunding mechanism and the defects therein and also analyze the new problems encountered in China to explore the effectiveness of existing solutions in order to achieve a clear-cut comprehension of the equity crowdfunding mechanism.