“But even still today, 97 percent of freelancing is done offline,” said Micha Kaufman, the CEO of Fiverr, in 2018 and even before that in a 2016 interview:
“When you think about freelancing, in general, only 3% — and this is mind-blowing — 3% of freelancing is happening online… Holy crap! 3%, that’s it.”
Fiverr’s company presentation from August 2021 reiterates: “Freelancing is still an old-school business.”
Our take: It is unclear how Fiverr reached their estimate (referring to SIA, McKinsey, US Census of Bureau), but it is roughly in line with the estimate given by Gig Economy Data Hub (quoting BLS, IRS, JPMorgan). The vast majority of freelance work really happens offline.
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