Aaron Barth![]() Are you starting a business and need a certified lawyer to write out your terms of service? Or, do you need a cool new company logo? Maybe you are looking for someone to play online games with you and help you win more. These services might seem unrelated, but they can all be found on the website fiverr.com. Fiverr, describing itself as “Freelance services for the lean entrepreneur”, is a website that allows users to hire others to do any online task they need through a digital marketplace. What is Fiverr? Founded in 2010 by Shai Wininger and Micha Kaufman, Fiverr aimed to provide an online marketplace for people to buy and sell digital services through freelancing. Fiverr starts its services as $5, thus the name Fiverr. Since then, Fiverr has gained a huge userbase and has completed an impressive 30 million jobs through the site. The massive popularity of Fiverr comes from its two-sided business. People who want to make some extra money on the side while working from home can easily find people who are willing to pay for their services. And people looking for cheap online freelancing can browse through hundreds of users willing to perform the task they need. Each time a transaction is done, Fiverr takes out a fee of 20%. This means Fiverr has plenty of money to advertise and make their website run smoothly. Fiverr is rapidly becoming the most common way for freelancers to make their money. How Fiverr is Changing Freelancing Fiverr is now the go to way for people who are looking for freelancing work. Many people love the ease of access and convenience Fiverr offers. People who want some extra income can work from home with little problems, and jobs are always available. As the demand for freelance work continues to grow, Fiverr makes it easier for its thousands of freelancers to find work. Fiverr takes care of everything, from advertising to payment once the job is done. Freelancers have a safe and easy way to continue their work without worrying about getting paid on time or losing their clients. One woman, Charmaine Pocek, made an impressive $1 Million just by using Fiverr to create resumes for people. However, it is not all positive for the freelancing community. Many people have criticized Fiverr for cheapening the freelance market and flooding it with competition that is willing to work for less. Fiverr starts most services at $5, and takes away $1. Considering a task like creating a company logo would easily take a half hour, this means freelancers are only getting paid about $8 per hour for their work. With the high amounts of competition, many freelancers have no choice but to work for little money. And the quality of work often suffers as a result. With the need to do so many jobs a day to remain profitable, many people provide services as quickly as possible. And Fiverr seems to embrace and even market the lifestyle of working as hard as possible for low wages to stay competitive. Fiverr labels hard working freelancers “Doers”, and it makes sure to romanticize a lifestyle of constantly working for the clients. A campaign in 2015 received criticism when it posted a picture of a woman with a caption stating how she misses sleep and skips lunch to provide freelance services for Fiverr. This clearly is not a healthy lifestyle to be living, and it seems unfair for Fiverr to expect this out of its freelancers. While Fiverr may be good for many people looking for side income, it certainly has its downsides Friends for Hire Fiverr was primarily started to get business related freelance services, but it has evolved over the years to become something much more diverse. You can find nearly anything you want, and many of the services provided are very strange and unique. Under the fun and lifestyle section, Fiverr has many services that people can get that would be nearly impossible to find elsewhere. A very interesting part of this section is found in gaming, where you can pay others to play online games with you. While many of the people advertise as skilled players who will help you level up or increase your competitive ranking, others make it clear they simply going to play with the buyer for fun and provide a friend for a limited time. With a camera and microphone, people can get a social experience for a fee. The sad truth is there are millions of lonely people out there who may not have any real-life friends they can spend time with. Since people are naturally social, it makes sense that others would pay for this socialization, even if it temporary. This interesting social media like service is shockingly popular. One person, who offers to play the online game Overwatch with buyers, has many positive reviews and several dedicated fans who are repeat customers. While many may assume that the sellers are purely in it for money, often they enjoy what they do. One seller says, "I'm just a really friendly person and I like playing Overwatch with people who don't have that many friends." While the idea of paying for a friend seems odd, it is clear this is a service many people are looking for. The Future of Fiverr With how popular Fiverr is, the company is only going to grow more and more over time. From the convenience of buying a cheap service for your company to the interesting market of paying for friends, Fiverr clearly has a successful business model. Because Fiverr lets people do any work they can think of, who knows what services will be created in the future? The Freelancing market is certainly changed forever, for better or worse. Cited https://www.forbes.com/sites/laurashin/2017/04/25/how-to-make-1-million-on-fiverr-secrets-from-the-sites-top-earner/#7b45c4e631f8 https://www.kotaku.com.au/2017/05/i-paid-women-to-play-overwatch-with-me-and-it-was-fantastic/
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