The Evolution of Freelance Marketplaces Online
As this article in Business Standard states, over 14,000 Indian service providers, can be found on freelance marketplaces such as Guru.com and Odesk.com, while over 4,000 Indian service providers can be found on Elance alone. While Guru.com boasts over 4,972 active Indian freelancer profiles on their site, Elance’s payments to India was 40 per cent of the total pie.
“The trend of the market has shifted to include larger numbers of non-US based freelancers. In 2004, only 15 per cent of freelancers on Guru.com were non-US based. In 2008, nearly half, 43 per cent are located outside of the US. Indian Freelancers have maintained a similar growth pattern on the site. In 2004, Indian freelancers made up for 8 per cent of the total amount of money transacted through Guru.com. In 2008, they make up 19 per cent of the total money,” says a spokesperson from Guru.com.
Even at Odesk, India tops the list in the number of assignment, with 4,994, being done on Odesk.com.
What is interesting is the sift from pure freelancers to companies who are using this as an arena to scount for projects. A similar phenomenon was with eBay, which initially had individuals, putting up personal objects for sale, but which has now been taken over by smallish companies using it as a platform to push their products.
Filed under: Business, Digital culture