Fiverr

Fiverr is a global online marketplace offering tasks and services, beginning at a cost of $5 per job performed, from which it gets its name. The site is primarily used by freelancers who use Fiverr to offer services to customers worldwide.^[2] Currently, Fiverr lists more than three million services on the site that range between $5 and $500.^[3]

History[edit]

Fiverr was founded by Shai Wininger and Micha Kaufman in 2009, and is headquartered in Tel Aviv, Israel. Wininger came up with the concept of a marketplace that would provide a two sided platform for people to buy and sell a variety of digital services typically offered by freelance contractors. Services offered on the site include writing, translation, graphic design, video editing and programming.^[4][5][6] Fiverr’s services start at $5, which is what the company’s name is based on and can go up to thousands of dollars with Gig Extras. Each service offered is called a "Gig".^[7]

The website was launched in early 2010 and by 2012 was hosting over 1.3 million Gigs.^[8] The website transaction volume has grown 600% since 2011. Additionally, Fiverr.com has been ranked among the top 100 most popular sites in the U.S. and top 150 in the world since the beginning of 2013.^[3]

On May 3, 2012, Fiverr secured US$15 million in funding from Accel Partners and Bessemer Venture Partners, bringing the company's total funding to US$20 million.^[2]

On December 2013, Fiverr released their iOS app in the Apple App Store.^[9]

On March 2014, Fiverr released their Android app in the Google Play store.^[10]

During August 2014, Fiverr announced that it has raised $30 million in a Series C round of funding from Bessemer Venture Partners, Accel and other investors. The round brings their total funding to date to $50 million.^[2]

In October 2015, Amazon.com started legal action against 1,114 Fiverr sellers it claims provide fake reviews on the US version of its website. Fiverr did not dispute Amazon’s allegations and stated: “As Amazon noted, we have worked closely together to remove services that violate our terms of use, and respond promptly to any reports of inappropriate content.”^[11]

In November 2015, Fiverr announced that it had raised $60 million in a Series D round of funding, led by Square Peg Capital. The round brings their total funding to date to $110 million.^[12] At the same time, the company announced that it was expanding the marketplace to allow sellers the ability to price productized services, known as Gigs, at prices above the original USD $5 minimum.^[13]

Fiverr facilitates the buying and selling of "Gigs" or micro-jobs online. Gigs range from "get a well-designed business card", "a career consultant will create an eye-catching resume design", "help with HTML, JavaScript, CSS, and JQuery", to "I will be your personal assistant or virtual assistant" and "I will have Harold the Puppet make a birthday video."^[14]

Fiverr is a company built on the model of the Gig-economy or Temporary work, which is driven buyers of various types of works, provided by independent freelance professionals, as well as small businesses and mid-sized companies, which together are sometimes called SMBs, SMEs or [Small and medium-sized enterprises]. Participants in the gig-economy may provide their products or services working in offices, factories, on the road (i.e.: providing driver and delivery services), or as in the case of online marketplaces for digitally delivered services, they may even work at home.^[15]

While the Fiverr marketplace may be dominated by so-called 'Millennials' (only two percent of sellers are over the age of 55), the company has stated that the rate of sellers aged 55–64 grew 375 percent at the end of the second quarter of 2015, compared with the year before.^[16]

Fiverr was especially criticized for advertising very cheap graphic services. At the end of 2014, Fiverr's Facebook-Page advertisement saying "You're paying too much for design" caused a public outcry.^[17] This criticism has been largely resolved, since Fiverr lifted the five dollar base price and began allowing logo designers, graphic artists, voice over artists and other Sellers in Categories across the marketplace, to charge the base prices they set for themselves.