+ CONTRIBUTING AUTHOR: Razvan U.
There is a good chance you have already stumbled across Fiverr at least once in your browsing history, either directly or by seeing one of their ads. Founded by Shai Wininger & Micha Kaufman and launched in 2010, Fiverr is currently the largest global online platform and marketplace for one-off freelance services in the world, where people can hire freelance contractors from all over the world to handle their tasks, no matter how small or large. From students, seniors or work-at-home moms to industry professionals and companies, the diversity of freelancers and their services has surpassed imagination.
In the beginning, it all started with a very simple but catchy concept in mind: allowing people to get things done with cost-effective services priced at just $5, hence the platform’s brand name. True, this had brought Fiverr a lot of bad reputation along the years (see the Amazon lawsuit regarding fake reviews that were sold on Fiverr), but things are changing nowadays and Fiverr is taking such cases quite seriously. However, people will always be divided into two sides based on their experiences and choices, so you will always encounter mixed feelings about Fiverr.
Each service is provided through what is known as a ‘Gig’, which resembles a digital product that the customer has to purchase in order to hire a freelancer to provide a specific service that they are offering. The services available on Fiverr cover all popular categories such as graphic design & animation, programming, video & music, writing & translation, digital marketing, as well as more relaxed & fun services to put a smile on your face or simply improve your lifestyle.
However, the concept caught so much attention & interest that Fiverr had to evolve beyond its name and initial idea. Fast forward a few years and the popular $5 became the base price, now allowing freelancers to charge more and thus provide larger & more extensive services, even tangible products or gifts that ship worldwide. The pricing changes also got Fiverr rid of most of the bad image problems caused by freelancers offering services at too cheap prices compared to real-world industry costs.
These major changes quickly led to a whopping 1.3 million gigs offered after just 2 years since launch, and since 2013 Fiverr has managed to keep itself in the top 200 most popular websites across the globe, completely changing the temporary work economy that it was based on, giving it a new name as well: the gig economy!
After 8 years of existence, with millions of gigs at your disposal and over a million monthly transactions, Fiverr has a myriad of gigs and freelancers to help you achieve your goals no matter how small, big or complex they are. Even if, by some random chance, you can’t find what you need, you’ll also be provided with the tools to submit job requests for freelancers to bid on, therefore combining the best of both worlds in one place. Just give it a try yourself — you might even make it your one-stop freelance market!
