Freelancer.com

Freelancer International Pty Limited
Type of business Public
Type of site
 Freelance marketplace
Available in English, German, French, Indonesian, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Turkish, Filipino, Dutch
Traded as ASX: FLN
Founded 2009
Headquarters Freelancer
Level 20
680 George Street
Sydney, Australia, Australia
Country of origin Australia
Area served Worldwide
Founder(s) Matt Barrie
CEO Matt Barrie
Key people Matt Barrie, CEO
Neil Katz, CFO
Peter Phillips, VP Eng
Chris Koch, Deputy CFO
Industry Online Outsourcing
Employees 470 (March 2016)
Website Freelancer.com
Alexa rank Positive decrease 1,323 (April 2017)[1]
Registration Required
Users 21,084,499 (Nov. 2, 2016)
Launched 2009
Current status Active

Freelancer is a global crowdsourcing marketplace website, which allows potential employers to post jobs that freelancers can then bid to complete. Founded in 2009, its headquarters is located in Sydney, Australia, though it also has offices in Southern California, Vancouver, London, Buenos Aires, Manila, and Jakarta.

Description

Freelancer is a marketplace where employers and employees are able to find each other. The site allows employers to post work for site members while bidding on in a competitive tender process. The site also allows members to host and enter contests for which prize money is offered as a reward. Freelancers and employers develop profiles on the site as they offer, win and complete work and write and receive reviews of people they work with of for. The site's members receive a finite number of bids to use on the site, which are periodically replenished. A series of account options are offered, ranging from free accounts through to professional subscriptions.

Freelancer has acquired several crowdsourcing marketplaces including Get A Freelancer.com and EUFreelance.com (founded by Magnus Tibell in 2004, Sweden),[2] LimeExchange (a former business of Lime Labs LLC, USA),[3] Scriptlance.com (founded by Rene Trescases in 2001, Canada)[4]- one of the early pioneers in freelancing, Freelancer.de Booking Center (Germany), Freelancer.co.uk (United Kingdom),[5] Webmaster-talk.com (USA), a forum for webmasters,[6] and vWorker (founded by Ian Ippolito, USA).[7]

As of 29 March 2016, the company has set up 44 regional marketplaces and operates in 34 languages and 21 currencies.[8] India[9][10] and Latin America.[11] On 2 April 2014, Freelancer acquired Ukraine based digital content marketplace-Fantero.[12]

In April 2015, Freelancer acquired Escrow.com, a provider of Internet escrow services based in the United States.[13]

Freelancer takes a 10% fee, which can be reduced with paid monthly membership, with a minimum fee of $5.[14] The company has recently announced its new move into home and local services, staying first in its home market of Australia.[15]

Most of Freelancer's users come from India, the United States, Philippines, Pakistan, and the United Kingdom, but it is represented through its user network in 247 countries, regions, and territories; and in both emerging and developed markets. The top three job categories that most frequently get job requests are IT and software, 34%; design, media and architecture, 31%; and writing & content, 13%. The company has offices in Manila, Philippines; Sydney, Australia; Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada; Buenos Aires, Argentina; London, United Kingdom; and Jakarta, Indonesia.[16]

Background

Freelancer has acquired several crowdsourcing marketplaces including Get A Freelancer.com and EUFreelance.com (founded by Magnus Tibell in 2004, Sweden),[2] LimeExchange (a former business of Lime Labs LLC, USA),[3] Scriptlance.com (founded by Rene Trescases in 2001, Canada)[4]- one of the early pioneers in freelancing, Freelancer.de Booking Center (Germany), Freelancer.co.uk (United Kingdom),[5] Webmaster-talk.com (USA), a forum for webmasters,[6] and vWorker (founded by Ian Ippolito, USA).[7]

As of 29 March 2016, the company has set up 44 regional marketplaces and operates in 34 languages and 21 currencies.[8] India[9][10] and Latin America.[11] On 2 April 2014, Freelancer acquired Ukraine based digital content marketplace-Fantero.[12]

In April 2015, Freelancer acquired Escrow.com, a provider of Internet escrow services based in the United States.[13]

2015-2017

In December 2015 the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) found Freelancer at fault for breaching the Privacy Act by violating the privacy rights of a former user and awarded that individual $20,000 in aggravated damages when Freelancer employees publicly exposed on Wikipedia and elsewhere the individual's private information, IP addresses, pseudonyms and other details after the individual wrote several critical comments and personal blog posts about the company. OAIC further ordered Freelancer to issue a written apology to the individual and for staff to undergo additional training on the handling of sensitive personally identifiable information. Spokespersons speaking on behalf of the company expressed their intent to appeal the ruling.[17][18][19]

2018

In March 2018 it was reported that Freelancer is facing another complaint with the OAIC. Claiming damages over $60,000 a complainant from the European Union alleges Freelancer's conduct in regard to privacy is in violation of Australian and European privacy legislation alike, a fact that would affect all of Freelancer's European customers, according to the complaint. Freelancer has not commented on the allegation.[20][21]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Freelancer.com Site Info". Alexa Internet. Retrieved 2017-04-23.
  2. 1 2 "News". Innovate it. Retrieved 2012-02-27.
  3. 1 2 "Crunchbase listing for LimeExchange.com".
  4. 1 2 "Freelancer acquires Scriptlance.com - article on TechCrunch".
  5. 1 2 "Freelancer Grows: Global Acquisitions Continue for Leading Job Market Website".
  6. 1 2 "GoRumors Article covering Webmaster-talk.com".
  7. 1 2 Lunden, Ingrid (November 19, 2012). "Freelancer Buys Another IT Job Site, vWorker (aka RentACoder.com), For A Price In The Millions". TechCrunch. Retrieved November 21, 2012.
  8. 1 2 Freelancer.com launches outsourcing platform in the Philippines, Gadgets Magazine
  9. 1 2 "Website for freelance assignments launched in India". The Times Of India. 2012-02-09.
  10. 1 2 , E27.sg
  11. 1 2 Freelancer.com looks to hit 0.1mn user mark in several LatAm countries in 2013, BNAmericas.
  12. 1 2 "Freelancer acquires Fantero.com". TheAustralian. 2014-04-03.
  13. 1 2 "Freelancer acquires Escrow". TechCrunch. 2015-04-26.
  14. ↑ "Freelancer Membership Plans, Earn And Save More! - Freelancer". Freelancer.
  15. ↑ Ingrid Lunden. "Online Jobs Marketplace Freelancer.com Moves Into Home And Local Services". TechCrunch. AOL.
  16. ↑ "Freelancer.com hits 20 million users; Pinoys among top job takers - Newsbytes Philippines". Newsbytes.ph. 2016-07-27. Retrieved 2017-06-09.
  17. ↑ Sharwood, Simon (11 January 2016). "Freelancer.com fined for 'reckless indifference to privacy rights'". theregister.co.uk. The Register. Retrieved 13 January 2016.
  18. ↑ Redrup, Yolanda (13 January 2016). "Freelancer contests $20,000 privacy breach fine from OAIC". smh.com.au. Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 13 January 2016.
  19. ↑ "'HW' and Freelancer International Pty Limited [2015] AICmr 86 (18 December 2015)" (PDF). www.oaic.gov.au. Office of the Australian Information Commissioner. 18 December 2015. Retrieved 13 January 2016.
  20. ↑ "Another Privacy Complaint Filed Against Freelancer.com | Data Privacy Philippines". privacy.com.ph. Retrieved 2018-03-23.
  21. ↑ "Freelancer and the privacy web". InnovationsAus.com (in Australia). Retrieved 2018-03-23.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.