What happened to Upwork? It has become a race to the bottom.

[gratified]

As a top rated plus freelancer that has generated tens of thousands of dollars for this platform, I'm becoming increasingly dissapointed in the direction that it has taken. I once regarded it as my main source of income but that has seriously dwindled over the last year and even more so over the last few months. All of my connects that are included in my monthly subscription are being eaten up 10x faster than they used to, leaving me no option but to buy more. And for what reason? I'm seeing way less quality jobs, a lot more "wannabe clients" that iniate conversation and then stop, job invites have become almost zero and they continue to release more updates that have aligned them with Fiver. What happened? I'm guessing that since the pandemic has forced more people to work from home, UpWork decided to capitalize on this. Allowing way to many people on the platform and have now created a race to the bottom which in turn destroys it's repuation for quality and drives more potential clients away from the plaform. Please figure it out! We deserve better.

[nav_designer]

100% correct same situation here,

they destroyed, no invites, no jobs, no good clients, no hiring,  earning downfall up to 60%,

the reason behind was.

mini fiver ( project catalog )

bosting proposal system.

commission fee from the client side.

private feedback destroys freelancer profiles.

scam job posting.

not sure if they will improve the platform, but freelancers are in a very bad financial crisis.

[deardipu]

Well said. 

[gratified]

Absolutely. It's a real shame to see something that brought so many talented professionals quality employment, has now turned into a complete joke. Everyday I see numerous posts on LinkedIn and other platforms about the terrible direction they've taken. Not to mention all the scams that continue to take place on here. It would be great to see the money that we earn for them put to better use. They're not only doing us a diservice but themselves as well. Their reputation within the corporate and professional world has taken a massive hit. They're no longer trusted as a reliable go-to for talented professionals. Hopefully they start listening to the people within this community that helped build it up to what it once was.

[c4e453ac]

I used this platform 12 years ago as a hirer.  It had very high quality freelancers and hirers back then (as oDesk).  I joined just last week as a freelancer and couldn't believe what I was seeing - fake jobs that are out-and-out scams proliferating the jobs board.  I completely agree with you - they are causing serious damage to their reputation here. 

[roxyrogers]

On days that I'm bidding, I probably report 60-80% of the jobs I see because they're scams. I just had a company from Singapore ask me to submit IP to them in the form of an article "test" prior to a contract! I'm a credentialed investigative news journalist with proven publication samples of exactly what they're looking for. I'm actually considering reporting Upwork to my Attorney General as I've had very good relations with my State's Office reps when a company is aware of intellectual property scams or allowing illegal or unethical scamming.

[05419825]

such a shame

[spectralua]

Where are the customers going, is there a good alternative?

[gratified]

There's lots of other freelance platforms out there and this is looking like the only solution. UpWork is going down in flames. Their stock has dropped more than 50% over the last year, which is coincidently exactly when the platform started to go down hill....

[jeremiah-brown]

Just don't get censored for posting that.

[gratified]

What? The truth?

[jeremiah-brown]

Yes.  The censorship here is ridiculous. 

[spectralua]

I agree with the issues you listed. They exist and I don't like all the solutions applied. I'm trying to move on and registered on other platforms as well. But so far this one is the most useful. I will be glad if you share new finds. Surely there is a new platform where customers go and trust it. I can see that many clients leave Upwork but I don't know where they go.

p.s. I would like Upwork to listen more to the wishes of experienced freelancers like Myles, because they are the main tool of income. Clients will leave Upwork if there are no high-quality professionals left, but only spammers. Recently, many other topics have been raised by professionals even here (not to mention Linkedin and others).

[roxyrogers]

The scams are the WORST. They're not enforcing their own rules anymore, clients regularly post telephone information and email addresses so people can apply OFF-platform, but that means we have NO protection, NO built-in NDA for the client or for us. It's an insane way to run a platform and a heinous way of saying thank you to people who've made Upwork Executives MILLIONS

[darrenwall74]

Upwork has become the Wild West, a sad demise of a once great platform.

[c4e453ac]

My belief is that if they cleaned up the platform, their stats would take an enormous hit, and shareholders for some reason love headline stats.  So UW clean up the platform, and they might take a 30% to 40% hit in activity.  Then their already pummelled stock price (down 65% from ATH last November) will take yet another clobbering.  Not to mention the bad publicity - it will be a public admission that much of the activity was ingenuine.  Just a theory, because there's obvious technical solutions to improving the quality of both freelancer and hirer - but at the expense of activity (even though much of the current activity is ultimately ingenuine - new freelancers responding to scam jobs is a big one).

[nav_designer]

The hiring rate is now 0% they completely destroyed....

[farrlawrence]

I totally get where you are coming from. I recently achieved Top Rated Plus - but it feel so incredibly hollow, because all the 'invites' I get are for scams. The jobs mentioned in emails are mainly scams. Most of the jobs on the feed are scams - some of them so badly written as to be laughable.

I love this platform. It has helped out our family tremendously. I don't want it to become some useless thing like **Edited for Community Guidelines**

[darrenwall74]

The quality clients have gone; there seem to be only scammers and cheapskates left.

I used to receive 90 - 120 invitations a month, and most were from genuine clients; now that's gone, and the few, less than twenty per month, I get are 90% scams.

[farrlawrence]

It's to the point now, that if they said, for $30 a month we can let you into the part of Upwork that you know and love - I'd actually take that. It should not be that way, but I'm game. I was insulated for a long time with some long-term clients. Those jobs have ended or slowed down, and now I see what everyone has been complaining about for a while now. 

[joansands]

I have never seen so many listings of really crummy and low paid jobs.

[antorix]

I'm a top rated plus freelancer that has generated tens of thousands of dollars for this platform, and I don't see any difference between now and 1, 2, 3 years ago. I apply to jobs, quickly get hired (about 25% of my proposals convert to hires, this ratio stays the same for years), and start working, no problem. Yes I see more spam, but I know how to identify it and just ignore it.

[sh_jyoti]

I agree with Anton. I saw his profile and he has listed only one expertize, language localization. That's what I had written in another thread (about not getting answer to proposals), that we should focus on our core expertize and that will get us genuine jobs on Upwork. Maybe I'm wrong but focusing on my core expertize has helped me too. 

[yofazza]

I also don't feel much change in getting work, despite the spam/scam ignorance and the rumoured algorithm or business model change.

When I need to look for work, I send proposals and I'll get something in 2-3 weeks at most. I need to browse & send proposals because I never got invitations except the weird ones. It's like this since year ago when I first returned to this site. And I believe it's also like this a decade ago.

This personal experience and also from a few other things I observed in this forum creates an impression (to me) that everything is actually still working normally or as planned by the management. Plans that could bring Upwork flourishes more or race to the bottom as this thread's title.

> a few other things I observed in this forum

Sometimes big freelancers come to this forum with technical problems other than spam or scam. They posted 1-2 times and then they're gone again.

[iamkhatkar]

And here you are, defending Upwork again. Don't you think that so many people saying the same thing could actually mean the truth? The reality is that Upwork has been changed. Their new policies are not profitable for freelancers. We, freelancers with top-rated status are not getting quality jobs and that's the truth. 

[yofazza]

First, I don't defend. I often wrote that I have troubles getting my proposals viewed. I do often write however, that Upwork has all the rights to try to get some profits after a decade of losses, because to tell them to keep running the business at a loss doesn't make sense to me. I'm a bad, or uninformed person, if I do that.

Second, I had not yet experienced the change at the time I posted that in August 2022, although people were starting to complain in this forum. Algo and business model change as we all know are no longer a rumor now.

[gratified]

Please explain what you're referring to on my profile? One expertise? Language? Localization? It says on your profile that you've worked 25 hours total on the platform...

[nav_designer]

Hi, Myles actually Joti referring who usually got hire low-budget project. like a Fiverr or via low-budget cheap gigs professionals are struggling to get hired, I usually applied for 300 jobs per month hiring rate was 45% nowadays the hiring rate is 0% for the last 3 months I have applied for 900 jobs non of the proposal was generic and got hired 1 time. even during a pandemic hiring rate was 35%. I usually get over 150 invites in 90 days. but for 6 months I got 30 invites only. fact is that clients buying cheap gigs, 95% of freelancers selling generic content via gigs, portfolios even based on a template, Upwork failed to plagiarize content they uploaded in gigs. most of the jobs are fake clients' responses to proposals. but after your reply they dead. why dont we have a feature that we got to know client reading your msg or not? so many issues. Iam wondering what will happen in the upcoming months.

[achikuta]

I agree with Hassan, this thing of client stop responding to messages after we respond is heartbreaking. Worse still, when you make a follow up on the job posting page to see if they have hired, you realise that they haven't hired yet up to 18 days, only interviewing, or should we suppose they are mostly taking the conversations out of upwork??????????

[gratified]

Yes, I absolutely agree. My inbox is filled with conversations that ended on the "client's" side. It's very deflating to invest the time into answering all of their questions, just to have them stop answering and ultimately never offering a contract. UpWork needs to start having some accountability on the client side. There is no integrity there. If nothing changes soon, it will be to late (it probably already is) for the platform to reagin it's credability.

[nav_designer]

Upwork should immediately discard a few useless features,

1)Mini fiver ( project catalog ) clients buying cheap gigs from unqualified con artists. this is why the reputation of the platform is going worst day by day.

2) Boosting the proposal system is a total scam, promoting a pay-to-win situation, where is telnet? 

3) 2.5% client fee. 

feature freelancer's needs.

1) personal, message delivery report.

2) the client must be verified before the job posting.

3) the proposal should be boosted according to freelancer qualification,top-rated status, earing, and job score.

4) most dangerous private feedback ( should be removed).

5) plagiarized the content especially ( portfolio) this is sad many con artists getting hired nowadays.

7) profile should show our verified test Badges should be placed with top-rated badges.

😎 Talent Scout rejection nowadays becomes a question mark there should be transparency.

[yofazza]

>  Mini fiver ( project catalog ) clients buying cheap gigs from unqualified con artists.

Is this true / accepted by the general population? 😂 I don't wander around freelancing sites much but I'm actually interested in this "project catalog" thing and planning to create one.

[nav_designer]

Mini Fiver should be removed from the marketplace.

because Upwork failed to make a copy which fiverr actually has. 

Fiverr ask for every minor detail about the Gig.

so the client could review the requirement and could take a decision. if the seller sells generic content so clients know about it.

at work in the design and creative category, 70% of gigs are based on generic content in gig descriptions not mentioned its generic even the portfolio is fake.

support center won't help regarding this issue.

believe client come and ask. why Iam charging 1000usd for creating an Explainer video even gigs are available at Upwork just for 10usd. just because he is asking because they do not write the truth about the work.

the downfall came because of bad decisions taken in the last 2 years.

[sh_jyoti]

Has anyone felt any changes? I got two interviews within 3 days. Both came through today and looks like these will convert into jobs. 

[harshu_n62]

Well said!!
Also I feel like the latest UI update slowed the hiring rate 😞 Hope this will be fixed soon.

[iamabdurrahman]

Still No response from Upwork support. 

[adoh56]

I have been more disappointed in Upwork than ever, and Upwork takes more money from freelancers than necessary. As a freelancer writer from a country using a currency other than USD, I feel the Upwork conversion rates are lower. And this means they make some money off you during conversions.

As if that's no theft of valuable freelancer credits, Upwork charges a 20% fee on new projects below $1,000 earned funds. Of course, this fee drops to 10% after earning more than $1,000 from a contract. Aside from deducting a 10 to $20 fee, Upwork charges a $2 withdrawal fee to PayPal.

I believe that taking a fee of no more than $10 from a contract is in order and that Upwork should not subject freelancers to further charges. Unfortunately, Upwork takes withdrawal charges and converts USD to local currencies at lower rates just to cast their income net wider at the expense of writers and freelancers.

But that's not all; Upwork deducts a withdrawal charge again if your initial withdrawal to a local mobile wallet fails. And sometimes, this failure to withdraw funds is on their part, and they will insist it's on your mobile wallet's part. So, Upwork may deduct withdrawal charges twice, as they have done to me on many occasions.

You may be forgiven for thinking the greed stops there. But Upwork has geared up to make you spend more connects than necessary. First, projects with somewhat lower budgets gobble up 6 connects; this only ensures you deplete connects so you can buy more.

Second, Upwork has introduced a feature that enables freelancers to boost their bids. And the connects spent on these boosts are exorbitant. This only means you will have to buy more connects, and Upwork stands to gain in all this.

If only Upwork could reduce the greed for more money, it would be the best freelance marketplace like it once was.

[roxyrogers]

Same here. As a top-rated plus, 100% success with 5-star ratings I've earned over 125K during a time when they were taking 20% from me! Now the only jobs are Non-U.S. based at about 4-6 dollars an hour USD. There are a ton of contractors on the platform that are willing to work for $2/hour, eliminating employment for many of us. The jobs economy may be full but no one is making a liveable income anymore, certainly not from this platform.

[darrenwall74]

Upwork needed revenue, so it decided to milk its users, both freelancers and clients.

Now, there's a mass exodus, and the platform is dying.

However, the strange thing is that they seem to be letting it happen.

It was good while it lasted; however, this year, what with this and ChatGPT, many freelancers are facing the perfect storm.

Good luck, everyone; I wish you all success with your future endeavours.

[darrenwall74]

I'm seeing jobs that are being repeatedly published as new.

Some I have submitted a proposal to, and then a few days later come across again as if they had just been published.

It feels underhanded, and a ploy to get freelancer connects.