When Freelancer.com hit 15 million worldwide users a few weeks back, it shared metrics on Canadian usage of the freelancing and crowdsourcing marketplace. According to Freelancer, over 240,000 Canadians are using the service, a 20% increase from last year. That number is set to explode following this week’s announcement of Freelancer’s expansion into local services.
Freelancer users will soon be prompted to indicate if their posted job is location-specific or agnostic. Location-specific postings will only be matched to freelancers in that local area, allowing Freelancer.com to expand its marketplace into dozens of new skill sets, from trades down to practical services like dog walking.
Freelancer expects the addition of local jobs to expand its total addressable market from $75 billion in GPV per annum to hundreds of billions per annum worldwide. Freelancer’s Regional Director for North America, Nik Badminton, also believes the move will have an impact closer to home. Citing a recent Statistics Canada report that shows both unemployment and self-employment rates growing, Badminton told BetaKit that platforms like Freelancer Local may well become a necessity for Canadians looking to augment their income.
“Freelancer Local provides the opportunity for everyone in Canada, and around the world, to connect with people that need their help,” he said. “Now, a family in Mississauga can easily hire a local electrician to fix the wiring in their bathroom, a business in Calgary can hire a local events specialist to run a party for their customers, and a young professional in Toronto can hire a removal company to move houses – all utilizing our existing marketplace and products.”
Freelancer’s local jobs offering will start rolling out worldwide this quarter.
