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LinkedIn is building a gig marketplace

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Re: LinkedIn is building a gig marketplace

#21

Post by knuthsat »

Ayesh wrote: post #8

I used to be a freelancer, finding work mainly on Upwork, and I loathe them now. What started as a 10% commission was upped to 20%, and they tried to do various tricks on both clients and freelancers to a point that I stopped doing freelance work altogether. It was a great platform, and I don't think a 10% clear cut wasn't enough for them for an organic growth. Another thing I loathe is LinkedIn. I'm sure many people…

Yeah, what I dislike about Upwork is that after they take thousands of dollars from me for their service, they still want me to pay for applying for new work.

I’m the one that spends time filtering through their cluttered job list, I’m the one trying to convince people to hire me, I’m the one doing the work, they process the payments and they still milk me massively. Eventually I deleted my account and went working just on Toptal.

There I have no idea how much they earn from my work but at least I get dozens of offers every time I become available.

I think Upwork just has to deal with too many disputes on low budget jobs and because of that their processes alienate high earning devs.

Re: LinkedIn is building a gig marketplace

#22

Post by spoonjim »

Lammy wrote: post #17

* Microsoft are building a gig marketplace under their LinkedIn brand, taking on UpWork and Fiverr

This is a decision that the Microsoft CEO gets briefed on, and can veto, but largely an independent subsidiary doing something like this doesn’t come from the mother ship.

Re: LinkedIn is building a gig marketplace

#24

Post by anovikov »

Ayesh wrote: post #8

I used to be a freelancer, finding work mainly on Upwork, and I loathe them now. What started as a 10% commission was upped to 20%, and they tried to do various tricks on both clients and freelancers to a point that I stopped doing freelance work altogether. It was a great platform, and I don't think a 10% clear cut wasn't enough for them for an organic growth. Another thing I loathe is LinkedIn. I'm sure many people…

They just wanted to weed out small time freelancers. The fee is 5% for >$10K customer-freelancer relationship... My average fee is about 7-8%, or about 10% including what the customer pays.

Re: LinkedIn is building a gig marketplace

#25

Post by Ayesh »

mcenedella wrote: post #20
Ayesh wrote: post #8

I used to be a freelancer, finding work mainly on Upwork, and I loathe them now. What started as a 10% commission was upped to 20%, and they tried to do various tricks on both clients and freelancers to a point that I stopped doing freelance work altogether. It was a great platform, and I don't think a 10% clear cut wasn't enough for them for an organic growth. Another thing I loathe is LinkedIn. I'm sure many people…

How specifically, do the commission fees work on a per contract basis?

I'm a bit hazy on details. Their commission is per-client. If the total payment between the client and freelancer is less than $500, the commission is 20%. It gets lower to 15% and 10% when you earn more. But it never teaches zero, and that is in addition to payment fees. You pay a fixed fee for withdrawals, or the bank withdrawals offer 3-5% low rates compared to market currency buying rates.

Re: LinkedIn is building a gig marketplace

#26

Post by cheschire »

spoonjim wrote: post #22
Lammy wrote: post #17

* Microsoft are building a gig marketplace under their LinkedIn brand, taking on UpWork and Fiverr

This is a decision that the Microsoft CEO gets briefed on, and can veto, but largely an independent subsidiary doing something like this doesn’t come from the mother ship.

I hope you're that forgiving by default to all leaders who's organizations / countries make controversial decisions, and aren't just being a Microsoft apologist.

Re: LinkedIn is building a gig marketplace

#27

Post by Lammy »

spoonjim wrote: post #22
Lammy wrote: post #17

* Microsoft are building a gig marketplace under their LinkedIn brand, taking on UpWork and Fiverr

This is a decision that the Microsoft CEO gets briefed on, and can veto, but largely an independent subsidiary doing something like this doesn’t come from the mother ship.

> independent subsidiary

I hope you will forgive me if I refuse to believe in such a thing having worked at large companies (non-Microsoft, tbf)

Re: LinkedIn is building a gig marketplace

#28

Post by CryptoPunk »

Hopefully cryptocurrency payments is an option. ZK-Rollups now enable Visa scale throughput for payments on Ethereum so crypto is primed for widespread usage.

Linkedin could stick with USDC, which is an FDIC insured USD-backed ERC20 token, to avoid the volatility associated with crypto-assets, while providing a more seamless globally accessible alternative to the legacy banking/payments system.

EDIT: privacy is still a big issue though. Linkedin's payment graph would be published to the blockchain with no obfuscation, which would undoubtedly create significant liabilities. Privacy is data and computationally intensive, so ZK-Rollup throughput capacity would decline from 3,000 tps to 300 tps with confidentiality added.

Re: LinkedIn is building a gig marketplace

#29

Post by Ayesh »

anovikov wrote: post #24
Ayesh wrote: post #8

I used to be a freelancer, finding work mainly on Upwork, and I loathe them now. What started as a 10% commission was upped to 20%, and they tried to do various tricks on both clients and freelancers to a point that I stopped doing freelance work altogether. It was a great platform, and I don't think a 10% clear cut wasn't enough for them for an organic growth. Another thing I loathe is LinkedIn. I'm sure many people…

They just wanted to weed out small time freelancers. The fee is 5% for >$10K customer-freelancer relationship... My average fee is about 7-8%, or about 10% including what the customer pays.

Yes. But that's what market places are for, to reach out new customers. If you have a relationship with a client for more than 10K, why continue to pay 5% on top of payment fees?

They messaging software is not very useful, and time tracking feature is hostile for many.

A more comparable feature would be for the client to pay a fixed fee to post, and allow them to work outside upwork.

Re: LinkedIn is building a gig marketplace

#30

Post by praptak »

ArtTimeInvestor wrote: post #5

It will be interesting to see a third public company building a work marketplace. Upwork and Fiverr are already a godsend when you build a startup. But they still leave a lot to be desired. From a buyers perspective, Upwork feels more solid than Fiverr. In terms of freelancers and system functionality. One thing that is annoying on both platforms is that they send you an invoice after every gig. The first one that wi…

Being a commodity sucks. If you are an expert you have better options than putting yourself for sale as commodity.
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