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What are the Anthill Cool Company Awards?
The Cool Company Awards were launched in 2006 as a way for Anthill to acknowledge and celebrate Australian organisations that are doing things differently to bring about positive change. Cool Companies stay one step ahead of the rest. They breed leaders who are rule-makers and rule-breakers. They are trend-setters in attitude and action. Quite simply, they are … cool! More.
Freelancer.com
Company: Freelancer.com
Website: www.freelancer.com.au
State: NSW
Category: Online Business, Global Growth
Freelancer.com has a long, long reach. Headquartered in Sydney, the web-based company connects business and individuals who need a task done with those who have the talent do it. And because most of Freelancer.com’s talent base is in India and other developing nations, those tasks can be completed at a greatly reduced cost.
Freelancer.com has more than 2 million users. The company describes itself as a marketplace of talent — an eBay of people, if you will. The company so impressed our august panel of Anthill Cool Company Awards judges that it took top honors in two categories: Global Growth and Online Business.
“Many of the freelancers on our site come from the developing world. They join the site because it’s a great way to use their skills and earn much more than they would locally,” said Chris O’Brien, public relations manager.
Freelancer.com (it was originally called GetAFreelancer.com before it streamlined the name) derives the majority of its revenue from a commission on completed jobs. The website is among the top 300 in traffic worldwide, according to the company. “And all of this is run out of our pad on King St. Wharf,” O’Brien said.
The company prides itself on having a low barrier to entry. There is no membership fee (users can pay to use additional services and reduce the commission cost. “Even the smallest business can post a job online,” O’Brien said.
Ease of use also leads to the company’s biggest challenge — keeping control of jobs begun through its system. If a job is taken “offline,” Freelance.com loses the commission.
The company’s marketing strategy is largely straightforward — promoting success stories and employing SEO. However, they have ventured beyond the Internet — about 500 public buses throughout Australia currently sport an ad and, as seen below, the company’s exec maneuver some TV face time.
But in the end, it’s all about the size and breadth of the job market stirred up by Freelancer.com.
“People have used Freelancer.com for some crazy jobs — even outsourcing the job of a lion tamer, which saw two people bidding for the work!” O’Brien said. “We’ve had people post jobs for people to stink-bomb their friend’s house. You can get virtually any job done on Freelancer.com.”
Freelancer.com on The Morning Show
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Nicolasrao Reply:
December 21st, 2010 at 4:02 pm
True the secret on Freelancer is not to work for it, but to create jobs. The prices paid to freelancers in Asian countries makes it useless for people who want to work online and make it worth their time. It is probably good for the West. But in Asia, better to be the boss- not the worker. Merry Christmas!
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Tren Sun Reply:
December 23rd, 2010 at 2:32 am
That’s true.
It costs no time. Instead of costing days or months trying to figure out how to solve a problem, we just need to *find* and *identify* the problem to solve, and hire other people to solve it. Time is expensive – compare with boring and repeatable tasks, we’d better focus on more creative targets.
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