A Brief History of Upwork
This is one of the best Fiverr alternatives that has made freelancers rich with the various freelancing jobs. Upwork was founded in 1999 where it was called Elance. Later in 2003, it was rebranded and was known as oDesk. In 2013, it was known as Elance-oDesk and in 2015, it was rebranded as Upwork.
As you can see the company has gone through various rebranding to make it a better platform over the years until it finally settled on the renowned Upwork brand. This freelance marketplace is headquartered in Santa Clara, California in the United States.
Some of the renowned founders of Upwork include Beerud Sheth, Stratis Karamanlakis, Srini Anumolu, Sanjay Noronha, and Odysseas Tsatalos. However, most people know of the CEO, Hayden Brown, and the Chairman, Thomas Layton.
The reason why Fiverr perhaps became popular so fast than Upwork is its flexibility in terms of offering its services which now Upwork has adopted. Besides, Fiverr has retained its name since it was established in 2010 which makes many people associate with it over the years.
According to Upwork statistics, in 2017, Upwork had over 12 million freelancers registered on their platform and over 5 million clients who are fully registered. By then, there were over 3 million jobs that were worth over 1 billion US dollars. By 2020, Upwork had a revenue of over $373.6 million.
Why Fiverr Grew Faster than Upwork
Who would ever believe that a little business that was started in a two-bedroom apartment would grow to become a massive Fiverr alternative with millions of freelancers? After some changes with the new CEO Hayden Brown in 2020, there was a purging of 1.8 million freelancers.
Many freelancers can also recall that they were rated as less skilled and given lower rankings in the same year. Mr. Brown said that Upwork was targeting those Fortune 500 companies and no longer the small companies that are just looking for a one-time gig.
Due to the purging of most freelancers who some even lost their accounts, Fiverr become the most appropriate alternative for them. That could be one of the reasons why Upwork would not catch up with this Israeli online freelancing marketplace.
There were changes that were made in Upwork that made freelancers run including the raise of “Connects” costs from 2.75% to 3%. We will talk about “Connects” shortly but broadly in our upcoming article. According to CEO Brown, all the changes were made to make Upwork one of the greatest Fiverr alternatives.
Besides, the changes were to enhance the quality of freelancers that would eventually lead to greater financial gains to upwork, freelancers, and investors. It is amazing that 25% of professionals on Upwork will be working remotely and permanently according to a report they released in 2021. The CEO did a great job.