Monthly Archives: July 2022

Just before the start of the pandemic in 2019, the number of buyers using freelancers on Fiverr was up 14% year-over-year to 2.2 million. That number has been steadily increasing in the years since: The number of active buyers grew to 4.2 million by March 2022.

But Kaufman said the number of companies using freelancers only represents a tiny portion of the addressable market in the U.S. That may change as businesses attitudes about using freelancers for projects shift, along with workers interest in taking up freelancing full-time. According to Fiverrs Freelance Economic Impact Report, half of freelancers saw an increase in demand for their services in the past 12 months. Kaufman said these changing dynamics will push freelancing into the mainstream in the coming years.

This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.

Much of the conversation about the future of work deals with regular paycheck jobs. How does Fiverr think about the future of work?

I think we're in many ways the poster child of remote work because that's the type of marketplace that we power. And we work the majority of the week remotely as well. I think one of the interesting things that happened, and this was largely because of the pandemic and the fact that it forced everyone to at least give [remote work] a try, is the fact that more and more businesses are up to understanding that there should be less focus on people's time and more focus on people's output.

What happened throughout the global lockdown was a situation where businesses lost their ability to track when their actual team members or employees are actually working. And lo and behold, that was not a terrible thing. Activity didn't go down. It actually, in many cases, increased. And that lack of control over people's time was less and less important, and it was replaced with focus on output. And I think that this is what we've been advocating for many, many years.

The other thing is that I think that the pandemic has just created this pull-forward effect on something that would have happened anyway. This is not about these black-swan events. It's all about the fact that it's a generational change, what's happening in the workplace. It's driven by the younger population. So it started in 2010 when millennials joined the workforce. By the end of this decade, 2030, millennials are going to be 75% of the workforce, which means that the way they like to work is the way everybody's going to work because they're going to be the vast majority, and Gen Z has followed.

"What happened throughout the global lockdown was a situation where businesses lost their ability to track when their actual team members or employees are actually working. And lo and behold, that was not a terrible thing."

I think that the younger generation has brought this new way of thinking, and this is why stats show that by 2030, 50% of the U.S. talent is going to be engaging in freelancing, which is incredible, because this means that for companies, half of the talent is not going to be up for full-time hire. And that pushes companies to think differently about how to engage with talent in general.

Fiverr is creating this operating system that will allow or liberate access to talent and integrate that talent into the businesses workflows. It's as easy as using cloud computing these days. It's with a few clicks of a button. And we're seeing more and more companies adopting this change and taking steps to ensure that they can benefit from the flexibility that that gives them.

As companies start to get more and more on board with this idea of talent as a service, how has the number of companies using Fiverr evolved?

We've seen a massive increase in growth If we look at just the past 12 months, there have been 4.2 million businesses around the world, about half of them in the U.S. Thats about 2 million out of 31.7 million small- and medium-sized businesses in the U.S.. So it's still a tiny portion of the addressable market. The opportunity to grow is just massive, and we think it's the early innings of this market.

It always reminds me of the early days of ecommerce when ecommerce was still low single-digit percentage penetration. And it was obvious that this would become a force in business, but it was just a matter of time and educating the market. And once it happened, it actually went through an inflection point. And the beauty about our business is that as successful as it is right now, it's still at a pre-inflection point. This is why I've been doing this for about 13 years, and I'm more excited today than I was 13 years ago.

I want to talk about the Togetherr service that was just announced. Its been described as fantasy football meets advertising. How would you describe it?

Talent doesn't want to work with the same brands over and over again. So they start departing from agencies and start to freelance on their own. Customers are coming, and they understand that they have a variety of different needs and they don't want the same agency to do everything because as talented as any agency can be, they don't have access to all the talent in the world. They have access to the talent that they employ.

"We're trying to provide all of the tools necessary to run your business so you can focus on the things you're really good at."

What we realized was that this presented another opportunity to disrupt the market by liberating access to talent in creating these on-the-fly dream teams that can actually do a project for you.

In essence, what we do is we understand the very little details or attributes of every talent and know how to connect those talents together to form groups that will work on your project and then get this assembled.

With the rise of remote work, workers have a less clear divide between work and life. Fiverr provides some tools to help freelancers manage their time. Are there any plans for growth in this space?

Absolutely, yes. We believe that much like the way we work, everybody else should have a reasonable balance. And, and by the way, that balance shifts throughout the years and how you build your career. If you asked me, I don't remember my 20s and 30s. I worked so hard. And I don't regret it because this was my decision. And it was important for me to build something very large. But this is not the only way to build your career. And everybody should choose their own path. And for us, what's really important is that people would not spend time doing things that they shouldn't be doing.

What do freelancers tool stacks look like?

If they use Fiverr, the ambition we have is that they don't need to use other tools to run their business As much as we can take away from what's not necessary to do, we provide. So if you think about Fiverr as a platform, freelancers don't deal with anything that has to do with contracting, invoicing, figuring out how to exchange information and data files. Theres no need to deal with NDAs, no need to deal with storing and retrieving work. All of that is baked into the platform. So they get super detailed reporting about their performance. So they can figure out where they can do better.

We have products that allow freelancers to also manage their business, even if they have business outside of the platform. We have a product called Fiverr Workspaces. That product allows freelancers to send invoices, send proposals, get paid and so forth. We're thinking about this holistically. We're trying to provide all of the tools necessary to run your business so you can focus on the things you're really good at.

At what point do you think the company will reach that inflection point you mentioned earlier?

It's the $1 trillion question. It's very hard to say how general awareness progresses. And again, if I go back to my comment about ecommerce, it took ecommerce about two and a half decades to reach 10% of commerce. Why didn't it happen faster? Because it's a tectonic change. it takes time to educate people: Why are you spending about a month trying to find a freelancer when you can go on Fiverr and, on average, it takes between five and 15 minutes? Why? Well, it takes time. And the larger the businesses are, the slower they move. The slower they adopt new things. On the small- and medium-sized businesses, they're super agile, they're super flexible. They will use whatever the new thing is. And as we go up market, as we go to larger businesses, obviously those changes are slower. I don't think we're far from that point.

I was talking about the younger generation that came in. That younger generation that came in in 2010 is now 10 or 12 years into the workplace. They're becoming managers. They know how to use those systems. So I think that in many ways, we're probably closer than ever to that inflection point. And we're definitely pushing like everything we're doing, from creating awareness campaigns as Super Bowl ads or working with our community to spread the word.

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In its battle with Big Tech, the CFPB is building an army of engineers - Protocol

WASHINGTON, June 21, 2022 Public Knowledge, non-profit public interest group, further advocated Thursday support for the Digital Platform Commission Act introduced in the Senate in May that would create a new federal agency designed to regulate digital platforms on an ongoing basis.

We need to recognize that absolutely the time is now. It is neither too soon nor too late, said Harold Feld, senior vice president at Public Knowledge.

The DPCA, introduced by Senator Michael Bennet, D-CO., and Representative Peter Welch, D-VT., would, if adopted, create a new federal agency designed to provide comprehensive, sector-specific regulation of digital platforms to protect consumers, promote competition, and defend the public interest.

The independent body would conduct hearings, research and investigations all while promoting competition and establishing rules with appropriate penalties.

Public Knowledge primarily focuses on competition in the digital marketplace. It champions for open internet and has openly advocated for antitrust legislation that would limit Big Tech action in favor of fair competition in the digital marketspace.

Feld published a book in 2019 titled, The Case for the Digital Platform Act: Breakups, Starfish Problems and Tech Regulation. In it, Feld explains the need for a separate government agency to regulate digital platforms.

Digital regulation is new but has rapidly become critical to the economy, continued Feld. As such, it is necessary for the government to create a completely new agency in order to provide the proper oversight.

In the past, Congress empowered independent bodies with effective tools and expert teams when it lacked expertise to oversee complex sectors of the economy but there is no such body for digital platforms, said Feld.

The reality is that [Congress] cant keep up, said Welch. This comes at a time when antitrust action continues to pile up in Congress, sparking debate across all sides of the issue.

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American Innovation and Choice Online Act Has Panelists Divided on Small Business Impact - BroadbandBreakfast.com

Disney has reached an agreement with The Trade Desk, a global ad tech company, that makes it possible for brands to target automated ads across Disney properties using data matched on the back end from Disney and The Trade Desk.

Why it matters: This is one of the largest media-business efforts yet to craft a new ad-targeting system as third-party tracking fades away, and it's likely to trigger a series of similar partnerships between major media companies and other big ad tech firms.

Details: The deal integrates data from Disneys Clean Room, a privacy-conscious repository of first party data, or data Disney gathers directly from its users with their consent, and matches it with personalized data thats been created through an industry framework called the Unified ID 2.0, which The Trade Desk has championed.

Between the lines. The deal will help Disney achieve its goal of shifting more than 50% of all of its advertising sales to automated buying.

The big picture: The deal comes as the streaming advertising landscape grows more competitive.

Bottom line: I think there's a lot of folks kind of sitting there waiting for some of this stuff to play out in the identity [personalized data targeting] landscape. But we're not waiting, said Tim Sims, chief revenue officer at The Trade Desk.

Link:

Exclusive: Disney inks major advertising deal with The Trade Desk - Axios

LONDON, July 13, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Tech, Media, and Telecom (TMT) Industry Mergers and Acquisitions Deals by Top Themes in Q1 2022 Thematic Research report offered by GlobalData Plc analyzes the disruptive themes that have driven M&A activity in Q1 2022 in the TMT Sector.

The metaverse is defined as a virtual world where users share experiences and interact in real-time within simulated scenarios. Big tech is busy developing the metaverse, which could transform how people work, shop, interact, and consume content. Companies investing in the metaverse will increasingly focus on themes, including artificial intelligence (AI), augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), 5G, and cloud computing. Tech giants will start engaging in billion-dollar M&As to position themselves in the metaverse - the next big step in digital media.

Top Themes Driving TMT Market Growth

For more insights on the top themes driving the TMT sector, download a sample report

Cloud computings importance has grown significantly in recent years. It has enabled the use of shared IT infrastructure and services to create a flexible, scalable, and on-demand IT environment. over the next few years, it will become the dominant model for delivering and maintaining enterprise IT resources, including, software, platforms, and tools for application developers. Rising competitive pressure has made many companies turn towards cloud technologies to stay competitive in the market. M&A activity in the cloud and managed services space continues to accelerate and we witness more deal activity in this theme.

Leading Companies Involved in M&A Deals in the TMT Sector

To know more about leading companies involved in M&A deals in the TMT market, download a sample report

TMT Industry M&A Deals by Top Themes - Thematic Intelligence Report Scope

Reasons to Buy

Related Reports

TMT Market Overview

FAQs

What are the key themes driving growth in the TMT market? Some of the key themes driving growth in the TMT market are metaverse, internet of things, artificial intelligence, cloud, and digital media.

Which are the leading companies involved in M&A deals in the TMT market?Some of the leading companies involved in M&A deals in the TMT sector are Elliott Management, Evergreen Coast Capital, Brookfield Business, HP, Thoma Bravo, Globalive Capital, Google, Cellnex Telecom, Apollo Global Management, and Cox Media Group.

Table of Contents

Global M&A deals in Q1 2022 Key takeaways

Review of global M&A deals in Q1 2022

Themes driving global M&A deals in Q1 2022

Appendices

About us

GlobalData is a leading provider of data, analytics, and insights on the world's largest industries. In an increasingly fast-moving, complex, and uncertain world, it has never been harder for organizations and decision makers to predict and navigate the future. This is why GlobalData's mission is to help our clients to decode the future and profit from faster, more informed decisions. As a leading information services company, thousands of clients rely on GlobalData for trusted, timely, and actionable intelligence. Our solutions are designed to provide a daily edge to professionals within corporations, financial institutions, professional services, and government agencies.

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Cloud and Metaverse Among Top Themes Driving TMT M&A Activity in Q1 2022 | GlobalData Plc - GlobeNewswire