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wlyonsatl
Community Member

New Freelancers During The Pandemic

This article...

 

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/05/14/best-side-hustles-to-make-money-at-home-amid-pandemic-fiverr-upwork....

 

...claims, "The Covid-19 pandemic has led to a 50% increase in registration volume across many categories on Upwork, including technology-related jobs, according to data from the end of March and April. Specifically, there’s a demand for web, mobile and software development..." 

 

I'm glad those are not my areas of specialty, but good luck to everyone who is. The article says these were actual registrations that skyrocketed, not just applications, but journalists often get such details wrong.

8 REPLIES 8
martina_plaschka
Community Member


Will L wrote:

This article...

 

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/05/14/best-side-hustles-to-make-money-at-home-amid-pandemic-fiverr-upwork....

 

...claims, "The Covid-19 pandemic has led to a 50% increase in registration volume across many categories on Upwork, including technology-related jobs, according to data from the end of March and April. Specifically, there’s a demand for web, mobile and software development..." 

 

I'm glad those are not my areas of specialty, but good luck to everyone who is. The article says these were actual registrations that skyrocketed, not just applications, but journalists often get such details wrong.


They probably are mixing up freelancers and clients.... I would not be surprised if freelancer applications skyrocketed, doubtful about client numbers. 

I think the journalist likely is mixing up applicants vs. applicants who were accepted by Upwork as new freelancers. As of March 31 Upwork's freelancer count increased 15% (to 50,962) and client count increased nearly 34% (to 32,234) compared to the same date a year ago.


It should be a good thing for freelancers that growth in the new client count is more than double the growth of new freelancers, so Upwork’s efforts along those lines are clearly working.


But Upwork has also said, “Our business is experiencing, and is expected to continue to experience, an adverse impact from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic,” and “Although the COVID-19 pandemic did not have a material adverse impact on our financial results for the first quarter of 2020, it may result in significant reductions in demand for our products and services, especially with respect to our small- and medium-sized business clients, from which we derive a substantial portion of our GSV and revenue. As a result, we expect revenue will be lower in the second quarter than we initially anticipated at the beginning of 2020…”


COVID-19 is presenting other challenges to Upwork, including, “…as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, we are experiencing an increase in the number of users requesting a reduction of our fees and an increase in transaction losses due to declined payment methods and chargebacks.”


Not many businesses are escaping the negative effects of this pandemic. Fingers crossed that we can soon put it behind us.

 

 

 

 


Will L wrote:

I think the journalist likely is mixing up applicants vs. applicants who were accepted by Upwork as new freelancers. As of March 31 Upwork's freelancer count increased 15% (to 50,962) and client count increased nearly 34% (to 32,234) compared to the same date a year ago.


It should be a good thing for freelancers that growth in the new client count is more than double the growth of new freelancers, so Upwork’s efforts along those lines are clearly working.


But Upwork has also said, “Our business is experiencing, and is expected to continue to experience, an adverse impact from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic,” and “Although the COVID-19 pandemic did not have a material adverse impact on our financial results for the first quarter of 2020, it may result in significant reductions in demand for our products and services, especially with respect to our small- and medium-sized business clients, from which we derive a substantial portion of our GSV and revenue. As a result, we expect revenue will be lower in the second quarter than we initially anticipated at the beginning of 2020…”


COVID-19 is presenting other challenges to Upwork, including, “…as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, we are experiencing an increase in the number of users requesting a reduction of our fees and an increase in transaction losses due to declined payment methods and chargebacks.”


Not many businesses are escaping the negative effects of this pandemic. Fingers crossed that we can soon put it behind us.

 

 

 

 


I doubt these numbers. Last time I checked (sadly they changed the search function, not displaying freelancer numbers any longer) they had well over 2,2 million freelancers. I doubt they purged that many to get down to 51K. 

Martina,

 

I don't think it's necessary for me to quote your entire post here, but if you doubt the figures I quoted you can read them for yourself in Upwork's latest quarterly filing with the US government:

 

https://www.sec.gov/ix?doc=/Archives/edgar/data/1627475/000162747520000018/upwk-20200331.htm

 

Obviously (or maybe not), the numbers refer to freelancers and clients who generated revenue for Upwork during the three months ended March 31, 2020. 

 

If you can't find the numbers I quoted, let me know and I'll tell you the page number on this document where I found them.

 


Martina P wrote:

Will L wrote:

 As of March 31 Upwork's freelancer count increased 15% (to 50,962) and client count increased nearly 34% (to 32,234) compared to the same date a year ago.


I doubt these numbers. Last time I checked (sadly they changed the search function, not displaying freelancer numbers any longer) they had well over 2,2 million freelancers. I doubt they purged that many to get down to 51K. 


It might mean (although it doesn't say it)  "earning" freelancers and "paying" clients, and I'd say that may well be accurate.

Anyone who really wants to understand Upwork as a business only has to read the company's periodic reports to the US Securities and Exchange Commission:

 

https://www.sec.gov/cgi-bin/browse-edgar?company=Upwork&owner=exclude&action=getcompany

 

According to the company's quarterly report for the three months ended March 31, 2020...

 

https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1627475/000162747520000018/0001627475-20-000018-index.htm

 

... there were 50,962 freelancers and 83,196 clients who generated revenue for Upwork. (This is on Page 17 of the document, for anyone who cares to double-check.)

 

Whether Upwork has 100,000 or 1,000,000 or more registered but idle freelancers and clients probably doesn't matter much to the majority of people who are interested in the company as an investment.

lysis10
Community Member


Will L wrote:

This article...

 

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/05/14/best-side-hustles-to-make-money-at-home-amid-pandemic-fiverr-upwork....

 

...claims, "The Covid-19 pandemic has led to a 50% increase in registration volume across many categories on Upwork, including technology-related jobs, according to data from the end of March and April. Specifically, there’s a demand for web, mobile and software development..." 

 

I'm glad those are not my areas of specialty, but good luck to everyone who is. The article says these were actual registrations that skyrocketed, not just applications, but journalists often get such details wrong.


lol "journalists". 

 

Sounds like someone needs to go read more blackhatworld and Facebook groups to understand why that category's submissions are up.

11f7a755
Community Member

All I can say is I can personally vouch for this.  For me it was either McDonald's or this. I opted for this. My first online search yielded Upwork "Make memes". And I even ended up with a job on this topic. Perhaps a guardian angel is looking after me. (Well not for the past couple of days.)

 

Yay Covid-19.

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