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Introducing the World’s Work Marketplace

larsasbjornse
Community Member

Screenshot from May 4, 2021 9_09 AM.png

Greetings Upwork Community,

 

We would like to share a big announcement with all of you! 

 

Upwork is introducing a new industry category—the work marketplace, which is designed as a place where independent professionals, like yourself, can cultivate trusted, long-term client relationships, and secure meaningful and consistent work. This effort is designed to raise awareness of Upwork and create more opportunities for our highly talented community. The changes we’ve made help us shine an even stronger spotlight on your range of skills, capabilities, and professional value, and make Upwork an even easier and more engaging place to do the work you love. 

 

At the same time, we’re unveiling a new brand identity and brand advertising campaign to help independent talent and clients better understand how our work marketplace can help them achieve more together. Our brand look and feel has been reimagined to reflect what we’re creating together and celebrates independent talent helping companies thrive in the remote economy. You will notice a variety of visual changes that bring an updated design to the site as part of our rebranding effort. This fresh new look includes a small change to our logo, updating our existing colors to brighter hues, and adding new fonts and invigorating photos and illustrations that showcase who we are today. 

 

This tremendous effort was brought to life by agencies and independent talent from our work marketplace in collaboration with Upwork’s internal team.

 

The new ad campaign, Up We Go, tells the story of independent talent and companies taking a leap forward to create better businesses, better careers, and better lives. It recognizes the importance and power of independent talent working alongside businesses to move work forward with amazing outcomes again and again. 

 

Why are we launching a new industry category?

 

2020 changed the world of work as we know it. Companies are realizing the competitive advantage of working with independent talent and independent professionals are embracing the opportunity to gain more freedom and control over their careers.

 

We coined this new industry category to better reflect how, together with our community of independent professionals and clients, we are building a place where strong, trusted relationships can thrive without the constraints of traditional work. We’re dispelling the outdated freelancer stereotypes and helping companies  understand the value of leveraging highly-skilled independent talent to accomplish anything, no matter how big or small the ambition

 

Learn more about the work marketplace industry category here

 

What is a work marketplace

 

You can think of it as an on-demand global marketplace of highly-skilled independent talent that helps companies immediately scale and grow. 

 

Talent, welcome to your professional home. 

  • For talent, the work marketplace is where independent professionals can connect with like-minded clients to grow their business and gain more freedom and control over their career while doing work they love. This new industry category carves out a place for independent talent to explore more opportunities, develop trusted work relationships, and find their home for work.

Businesses, gain control and immediately scale.

  • For clients, the work marketplace provides immediate access to the expertise of independent talent from around the world, enabling companies to have more control and create sustainable growth for their businesses by leveraging the marketplace to rapidly scale up or down based on their needs in the moment. It’s designed so that over time, companies can build a virtual talent bench of highly-skilled, independent talent to help them tackle the changing demands of businesses and market conditions. 

 

What are the ways to work in the work marketplace?

 

No matter the level of support customers need or what they want to achieve, Upwork has a solution. 

 

Talent Marketplace™ is where professionals can find the work they love and companies can hire the pros they need to help them get ahead. Easy-to-purchase project offerings are available in Project Catalog™—which allows talent to set the scope, terms, and price on pre-packaged projects so companies can quickly browse and buy projects to expand their capabilities. 

 

You can expect to see ongoing feature enhancements as we continue to improve the usability of our platform. Explore more about the ways to use Upwork in our Work Marketplace blog.

 

To celebrate this special moment, enjoy this new MixCloud mix, Up We Go! produced especially for this day by an independent producer, illustrator, and DJ, all hired right here on Upwork!

 

If you have feedback about the changes, we’d love to hear it!

 

Up We Go!

 

Sincerely,

Lars Asbjornsen

Senior Vice President, Marketing

Screenshot from May 4, 2021 9_09 AM.png

68 Comments
365ed930
Community Member

Thank you for bringing up the font, Mark.  I will join that hunting party!

 

deborahemmitt
Community Member

Good morning/afternoon/evening Upworkers!

 

I wish to join all the comments asking how this differs from how it already works (for freelancers). The email that plopped into my inbox didn't seem to be written with the freelancing audience in mind, and gave no explanation as to how this 'extra industry category' (what does that mean?) will change how I apply for projects, if at all, how I use Upwork, nor how it will benefit me. I'd like to join in the excitement, but firstly need a reason to get excited!

 

As others have said here, it seems to be a rebranding/marketing spin for clients, and I suspect that the freelancing side of things won't change. I'm happy to be proven wrong. 

 

Admins, can we please have some clear communication about whether we do anything differently now as freelancers, how this change will benefit us (if at all) and, in short, what the heck it all means?! Please, no cut-and-paste marketing bumpf, just plain-speaking English. Thanks so much!

m_terrazas
Community Member

Lars A wrote:

Screenshot from May 4, 2021 9_09 AM.png

Greetings Upwork Community,

 

We would like to share a big announcement with all of you! 

...........

So far good, I have understood perfectly. Another "exciting announcement".

I do not know if it is because you are so "excited" with the announcement, that you have written everything so exaggerated or what reason there may be, but I have not managed to understand anything.
I am not an English speaker and, in case I was missing something, I have translated the text. But to my disappointment, I had understood.
As others have already said, why don't you tell us what you have done with simple words?
Just for a change, and especially so that we understand something.

boshoffirene
Community Member

Does whoever wrote this 'exciting news!' bit of info know the concept of KISS? Keep It Simple...S*pid.

 

You could just have said - we made the following changes...1...2...3..... That's it. Anything else is superfluous...fluff...means nada.

feed_my_eyes
Community Member

Gina H wrote:

 

I just don't see how you can pitch yourself as this super high end global marketplace and still be so reluctant (or at the very least, slow) to remove people from the platform when they are not up to par. Everyone claims Upwork has too many freelancers, yet somehow many who have admitted to badly breaking the TOS get another undeserved chance.


This x 1000. All the marketing in the world won't help, if clients come to the platform and get inundated with bids from "writers" who can't spell and "designers" with portfolios filled with images that are blatantly stolen from stock websites. Surely more quality control is needed if Upwork wants to attract bigger and better clients?

 

On the plus side, I watched a few of the new videos on You Tube last night and thought that they looked great - very eye-catching and engaging.

marietterussell
Community Member

It has been a different experience for me because as far as I am concerned Upwork changed drastically for me this year. The work is not there anymore, gone. I used to make a good living here on Upwork but I have had less than 5 invites in the past couple of months. The few jobs that appear are pounced on by 50 people within 10 minutes of them being posted.

 

This, of course, could be an effect of the circumstances around the world, there may be less work around but when I got that email yesterday, I thought: Ah, new CEO the platform is changing. My work dried out even more after I took a Skill Certification, things had been slow but after I got the Certification, it all died.

 

Currently looking at other ways of making a living... can't work for USD30 an hour and it seems that is what I will have to drop my prices to as the few jobs that are actually going through the feed are mostly at this level.

 

It was not good news, not really and then I actually tried to see what all the excitement was all about and like others here, can't see what the announcement was for, other than informing people like me, who did not know we had a new leader that things are changing. That I have certainly noticed!

 

Used to love it here however and helping people was always so great. 

 

See how it goes : )

gina-herrera
Community Member

Irene B wrote:

Does whoever wrote this 'exciting news!' bit of info know the concept of KISS? Keep It Simple...S*pid.

 

You could just have said - we made the following changes...1...2...3..... That's it. Anything else is superfluous...fluff...means nada.


But the thing is, they didn't actually make any changes lmao

As Petra mentioned, they threw in a few trademarks and changed some colors and fonts.

 

Everything else is exactly the same, they are just using fancy lingo to rope in new higher end clientele. The point of this "exciting announcement" is to be confusing so that freelancers don't understand that nothing has changed, while clients are meant feel confident this is a premium source to hire contractors (they will soon change their mind after trying it out, I'm sure, unless they create exclusively invite-only posts).

There is one line in the announcement that claims they are bringing "desirable" clientele to professional freelancers, just to pretend as though they are working harder to bring better clients onto the site, but their addition of the Project Catalog was an attempt at the opposite. This whole rebrand is for the clients. It's nothing to do with us.

agilemax
Community Member

Brilliant call out Gina H!!  I am new to Upwork, but my very first thought was "why don't they have ratings & reviews for both workers and employers??"   (similar to the Airbnb approach) 

 

As a guest and a host on Airbnb I pay a lot more attention to people with 4 and 5 star ratings.  It's nothing personal towards anyone... I just want to make sure I interact with people that have a proven track record of having delivered good value to others!  

 

IMO - addressing the concern Gina H raised is soooooo much more important than any rebranding/marketing effort.  

 

Again... I'm very new to Upwork, so I might be missing something... :o) 

richardrader
Community Member

This announcement reminds me of a time I ran into my ex at a grocery store and told me he was a brand new person but the only difference was that he had a new shirt on. 

v1ad_b1d1ak
Community Member

Totally AGREE, past logo and fonts were GORGEOUS, now on my 1080p Monitor i cant read letter "r", so bad font... And logo is too weak now, I think. But anyway, thats not our decision)