E-lancing, also known as e-labour,
is the practice of taking
freelancing work through online job offers. E-lancing websites or platforms operate as hubs where employers place tasks, which freelancers from around the world bid for. Some e-lancing websites act as
intermediaries for payment, paying the freelancer directly after work is completed, to mitigate the risk of non-payment.
[
The Economist Newspaper Ltd, 2010. "Work in the digital age: a clouded future". ''The Economist'', Volume 395, Number 8682, May 15th-21st 2010. Roto Smeets, Weert (Netherlands).] Employers posting work on these websites set the price they are willing to pay for the task proposed.
History
In 2012, 1.56 million people were freelancers in the United Kingdom, a rise of 11.9% since 2008. Sebastian Trenner of the
World Bank
The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and Grant (money), grants to the governments of Least developed countries, low- and Developing country, middle-income countries for the purposes of economic development ...
wrote in 2012 that online marketplaces were unlikely to produce a significant decrease in skilled unemployment.
[Trenner, Sebastian ] Conversely, Karsten Geis of
Empirica Capital wrote in 2014 that e-lancing would be a primary employer of the future, and that normal jobs will tend to disappear.
[Gareis, Karsten {{cite web, title=eLancing–The Future of Work?, url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/228608164, accessdate=23 October 2014, website=ResearchGate, date=24 September 2014]
Notable e-lancing websites include
Fiverr
Fiverr is an Israeli multinational online marketplace for freelance services. Fiverr's connects freelancers to people or businesses looking for services. Fiverr takes its name from the $5 asking price attached to all tasks when the company was ...
,
Freelancer.com,
Guru.com, and
Upwork
Upwork Inc., formerly Elance-oDesk, is an American freelancing platform headquartered in Santa Clara and San Francisco, California. The company was formed in 2013 as Elance-oDesk after the merger of Elance Inc. and oDesk Corp. The merged compa ...
.
See also
*
Freelancer
''Freelance'' (sometimes spelled ''free-lance'' or ''free lance''), ''freelancer'', or ''freelance worker'', are terms commonly used for a person who is self-employed and not necessarily committed to a particular employer long-term. Freelance w ...
*
Gig worker
Gig workers are independent contractors, online platform workers, contract firm workers, on-demand workers, and temporary workers. Gig workers enter into formal agreements with on-demand companies to provide services to the company's clients.
...
*
Online marketplace
An online marketplace (or online e-commerce marketplace) is a type of e-commerce website where product or service information is provided by multiple third parties. Online marketplaces are the primary type of multichannel ecommerce and can be a wa ...
*
Online outsourcing
References
*
Outsourcing
Web 2.0 neologisms