Posted on 08/27/2016 10:48:43 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
LinkedIn has created a freelance marketplace. Launched on Wednesday, "LinkedIn ProFinder" asks employers to submit contract jobs in categories such as design, writing, or financial services and promises to send them up to five free quotes from LinkedIn users in response.
Connecting freelancers to work has become a big business for other companies. Thumbtack, a company that uses a similar match-making strategy by asking workers to submit quotes for jobs from wedding planning to accounting to home repair, charges workers a fee each time they bid on a job. Last year, its investors valued the company at $1.3 billion. Upwork, which is better known for the professional services that LinkedIn seems to be targetingcategories on its homepage include design, writing, and legal workhandles more than $1 billion annually in freelance work. Freelancers pay between 5% and 20% of every paycheck to the site.
LinkedIn's version does not yet have a set business model. "We want to continue learning and iterating to ensure we get it right before instituting paywalls," a LinkedIn spokesperson told Fast Company. Currently professionals can submit up to 10 proposals for free. After the 10th job application, they'll need to subscribe to LinkedIn's Business Plus subscription, which costs $60 per month. Eventually, the spokesperson said, LinkedIn might host payments between employers and freelancers, which would mean it could take a commission on each transaction.
Premium subscriptions only account for about 20% of revenue for LinkedIn, which makes most of its money on recruitment tools. Though LinkedIn has also built a Facebook-style advertising business, that revenue stream hasn't been as strong for LinkedIn as it has for its friends-focused peer. (The company shut down its ad network earlier this year.) A freelance marketplace could be an additional source of income that depends not on building a daily web destination, but also upon LinkedIn's biggest strength as a jobs site.
Microsoft agreed to acquire LinkedIn for $26.2 billion last month.
Over the last five years, the number of freelancers on LinkedIn has increased by 50%, according to the company. Through a pilot program launched in October, more than 50,000 of them have access to ProFinder.
Smart move for LinkedIn.
I have a fake Linkedin account with a pirate alter-ego from an online game.
I check it once a month or so to see ho wants to link up with him
Go here for cheap labor.
https://www.fiverr.com
Graphics & Design
Digital Marketing
Writing & Translation
Video & Animation
Music & Audio
Programming & Tech
Advertising
Business
Lifestyle
Gifts
Fun & Bizarre
Finally! An economy named after me!
I get dozens of irritating Linkin emails every month from a bot that wants to link with me.
This is another nasty Internet company that needs to go away and die imho.
I expect recruiters to follow.
They are looking for X years of experience with various types of technology and offer joke money a lot of times.
This might prove useful.
Human Resources is now an industry that is also becoming a kind of secret society.
“Finally!An economy named after Me”
It’s about damn time too!
You can calculate the exact age of employee they really want to hire by adding the years of experience wanted to 22. If they ask for 3-5 years of experience in a given technology, they strongly prefer to hire a 25 to 27-year-old...and won't go past 30. :)
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