Fiverr

Fiverr is an online marketplace for freelance services. The company provides a platform for freelancers to offer services to customers worldwide.[2]

Fiverr International Ltd.
Available inEnglish, Spanish, French, Dutch, Portuguese
Traded asNYSE: FVRR
Area servedWorldwide
IndustryOnline marketplace
Freelance Marketplace
Online outsourcing
URLfiverr.com
Alexa rank 360 (May 2020)[1]
CommercialYes
RegistrationRequired
Launched1 February 2010 (2010-02-01)
Current statusActive

History
Fiverr's former headquarters in Tel Aviv

Fiverr was founded by Micha Kaufman and Shai Wininger, and was launched in February 2010. The founders came up with the concept of a marketplace that would provide a two sided platform for people to buy and sell a variety of digital services typically offered by freelance contractors. Services offered on the site include writing, translation, graphic design, video editing and programming.[3][4][5] Fiverr's services start at US$5, and can go up to thousands of dollars with gig extras. Each service offered is called a "gig".[6]

The website was launched in early 2010 and by 2012 was hosting over 1.3 million Gigs.[7] The website transaction volume has grown 600% since 2011. Additionally, Fiverr.com has been ranked among the top 100 most popular sites in the United States and top 200 in the world since the beginning of 2013.[8]

On June 1, 2010, Fiverr received a seed investment of US$1 million from Guy Gamzu and other angel investors, and in May 2012, Fiverr secured US$15 million in funding from Accel Partners and Bessemer Venture Partners, bringing the company's total funding to US$20 million.[2]

In December 2013, Fiverr released their iOS app in the Apple App Store,[9] and in March 2014, Fiverr released their Android app in the Google Play store.[10]

During August 2014, Fiverr announced that it had raised US$30 million in a Series C round of funding from Bessemer Venture Partners, Accel (formerly known as Accel Partners) and other investors. The round brings their total funding to date to US$50 million.[2]

In October 2015, Amazon.com started legal action against 1,114 Fiverr sellers it claims provide fake reviews on the US version of its website. Fiverr did not dispute Amazon's allegations and stated: "As Amazon noted, we have worked closely together to remove services that violate our terms of use, and respond promptly to any reports of inappropriate content."[11]

In November 2015, Fiverr announced that it had raised US$60 million in a Series D round of funding, led by Square Peg Capital. The round brings their total funding to date to $110 million.[12] At the same time, the company announced that it was expanding the marketplace to allow sellers the ability to price productized services, known as Gigs, at prices above the original US$5 price.[13]

In June 2019, it listed on NYSE.[14]

On February 19, 2020, the company reported $107.1 million in revenue for the 2019 fiscal year.

Acquisitions

VeedMe

In 2017, Fiverr acquired video creation marketplace VeedMe.[15]

AND CO

In January 2018, AND CO, maker of software for freelancers, was acquired by Fiverr. CEO Micha Kaufman said at the time that many of AND CO's capabilities, such as invoicing, are "baked into" the Fiverr marketplace, but "the vast majority of freelancing is happening offline"—and Fiverr wants to enable those offline relationships.[16]

ClearVoice

In February 2019, Fiverr acquired premium subscription-based content marketing platform, ClearVoice. Founded in 2014 by Jay Swansson and Joe Griffin, ClearVoice is a venture-backed company headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona. Adding ClearVoice to the company's portfolio allows Fiverr to conveniently and consistently provide services for independent professionals as well as larger businesses.[17]

Management

Micha Kaufman

Micha Kaufman is the co-founder and CEO of Fiverr and a partner at a venture capital firm.[18] Prior to co-founding Fiverr, Micha Kaufman gained an LL.B. degree from University of Haifa and founded several technology ventures, including Keynesis, Invisia and Spotback.[19] In an interview with the German newspaper Handelsblatt in 2018, Kaufman spoke about his own difficulties in finding freelancers as a client before Fiverr: "Finding freelancers was not fun...", "...you ask friends for recommendations. You meet, you can show each other's work, you learn how much money you want for what. Everything is very time consuming."[20]

Gigs

Fiverr serves to allow listing and applying for small one-off jobs, or gigs, online. Jobs listed are diverse and range from "get a well-designed business card" to "help with HTML, JavaScript, CSS, and jQuery".[21] Fiverr is a company built on the model of listing temporary work positions. Freelancers work in a variety of workplaces, ranging from home to office.[22] Fiverr serves as e-commerce platform to freelancers & companies to sell their services by using their gigs. Gig is basically an advertisement of services. The buyers buy services in the form of gigs.

User demographics

The Fiverr marketplace is dominated by young adults (only 2% of sellers are over the age of 55); the company has stated that the rate of sellers aged 55–64 grew 375% at the end of the second quarter of 2015, compared with the year before.[23]

Criticism

Fiverr has received criticism for advertising very cheap graphic services. At the end of 2014, Fiverr's Facebook page advertisement saying "You're paying too much for design" caused a public outcry.[24] In 2013, Fiverr lifted the five dollar base price and began allowing logo designers, graphic artists, voice over artists and other sellers to charge the base prices they set for themselves.

In 2015, after an undercover sting, Amazon filed suit against 1000 Fiverr users over fake product reviews.[25]

In 2017, Fiverr was criticized for portraying unhealthy living and excesses in work behaviours as ideals to live up to. Fiverr also gives 100% privileges to buyers thereby neglecting seller rights. After a job has been completed, a buyer has the full rights to request for a refund.[26] Critics argue that Fiverr needs a balance in their equal-rights policy for both sellers as well as buyers.[27]

In 2018, Fiverr received an "F" rating from the Better Business Bureau, which is the lowest grade that can be given. In 2019, Fiverr received a "B" rating after responding to customer complaints.

IPO

On June 13, 2019, Fiverr listed on the NYSE (New York Stock Exchange) under the symbol FVRR, In the first day of trading shares in the company climbed to 90% of its opening price traded at $39.90. The stock quickly fell in price and as of the 14th of February 2020 Fiverr's listed share price is trading at $27.90 per share. As of June 1, 2020, the listed share price is $68.57.

See also

References
  1. "fiverr.com Competitive Analysis, Marketing Mix and Traffic - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved 2020-04-24.
  2. Leena Rao (3 May 2012). "Task-Based Marketplace Fiverr Raises $15M From Accel And Bessemer". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2012-05-04.
  3. CrunchBase Profile – Fiverr
  4. Kaufman, Micha (2013-09-17). "The Gig Economy: The Force That Could Save The American Worker?". Wired. Retrieved 17 September 2013.
  5. Eric Pfeiffer (3 April 2012). "How Fiverr.com is changing the creative economy $5 at a time". Yahoo News Blog. Retrieved 2012-03-04.
  6. Hoover, Lisa. "Fiverr Outsources Your Small Jobs for $5". Lifehacker. Retrieved 8 March 2010.
  7. Mary Pilon (16 March 2010). "What Will People Do for $5? Fiverr Lets You Find Out". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 2011-04-10.
  8. Robin Wauters (3 May 2012). "Fiverr helps get things done for as little as $5, raises $15m from Accel and Bessemer". The Next Web. Retrieved 2012-05-04.
  9. Bilton, Ricardo. "Fiverr launches its first iOS app to help mobilize the up-and-coming gig economy". Venture Beat. Retrieved 21 April 2014.
  10. Henry, Alan. "Fiverr Brings Its Low-Cost Side-Hustle Marketplace to Android". Lifehacker. Retrieved 14 March 2014.
  11. Aisha Gani: Amazon sues 1,000 'fake reviewers', The Guardian 18 October 2015
  12. Lora Kolodny (2015-11-11). "Fiverr Pockets $60M to Become Go-To Freelance Marketplace". Dow Jones & Company. Retrieved 5 December 2015.
  13. Abhimanyu Ghoshal (2015-11-12). "Fiverr will soon let you set any price for your services". The Next Web. Retrieved 6 December 2015.
  14. "Israels Fiverr Lists on NYSE". Jerusalem Post. Retrieved 3 July 2019.
  15. Kaitlyn Tiffany (27 June 2017). "Fiverr launches 'Pro' tier for handpicked freelancers". Techcrunch. Retrieved 17 May 2018. Fiverr has announced its acquisition of Veed.me, a well-established video freelancing site useful mainly for businesses looking to hire videographers to shoot ads locally
  16. Anthony Ha (24 January 2018). "Fiverr acquires And Co, maker of software for freelancers". Techcrunch. Retrieved 24 January 2018.
  17. Manish Singh (13 February 2019). "Fiverr acquires content marketing platform ClearVoice". VentureBeat. Retrieved 13 February 2019.
  18. https://www.entrepreneur.com/author/micha-kaufman
  19. Don Dion (6 December 2019). "Fiverr Could Head Lower With Lockup Expiration". Seeking Alpha. Retrieved 23 December 2019.
  20. Manish Singh (29 November 2018). "Fiverr acquires content marketing platform ClearVoice". Handelsblatt (in German). Retrieved 23 December 2019.
  21. Dachis, Adam. "Five Annoying Life Problems You Can Solve for $5 with Fiverr". Lifehacker. Retrieved 9 September 2013.
  22. Leamy, Elisabeth (4 August 2015). "Ways To Earn Money From Home: Services". ABC News. Retrieved 31 October 2015.
  23. Miller, Mark (20 August 2015). "COLUMN-Seniors gear up for the sharing economy". Reuters. Retrieved 31 October 2015.
  24. Hüfner, Daniel (9 August 2014). "Was darf gutes Design noch kosten? Licht und Schatten des Fiverr-Phänomens. (in German)". T3N News. Retrieved 26 February 2016.
  25. Demmitt. "After undercover sting, Amazon files suit against 1,000 Fiverr users over fake product reviews". geekwire. geekwire.
  26. Pershan, Caleb (23 March 2017). "Tragic Ads Attempt To Glorify Desperate Hell of Gig Economy". SFist. Archived from the original on 25 March 2017. Retrieved 24 March 2017.
  27. Sühr, Tom; et al. (July 2019). "Two-Sided Fairness for Repeated Matchings in Two-Sided Markets: A Case Study of a Ride-Hailing Platform". Researchgate. Retrieved 23 June 2020.
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