The LinkedIn of gig work... might actually be LinkedIn? Microsoft-owned LinkedIn is launching a gig marketplace called "Marketplaces" (#creative), according to The Information's PFWTM. "Gig" elicits thoughts of delivery drivers, but Marketplaces is targeted to white-collar pros (like: app developers, marketers, and designers). Users will be able to book freelancers straight through LinkedIn.
- Marketplaces is slated to launch this fall, and is expected to replace LinkedIn's $60/month ProFinder service (a skeletal version of Marketplaces).
"I just came across your profile"... The pickup line of professional networking. It's a good time for LinkedIn to beef up its gig offering: ~10M Americans are unemployed, and many are WFH freelancers looking for gigs. Part-time is the new full-time: the number of gig/contract/freelance workers is expected to triple to 42M this year from 2017.
- With its massive network of ~740M users, LinkedIn has a leg up over freelance sites like Upwork and Fiverr, which generated a combined ~$550M in sales last year. They take a cut when people get hired. BTW: both stocks plunged yesterday on the Microsoft report.
- Marketplaces could be a triple whammy sales puppy: More ad sales + more subscription sales + a cut of hiring transactions. LinkedIn's huge reach poises it to capitalize on the hot gig market.
LinkedIn is the most mature social network... because it's the most diversified. Facebook, Snapchat, Twitter, and Pinterest each make more than 90% of their sales from pure ads. LinkedIn makes $$$ from business subscription services (like Sales Navigator), ads for job postings, and LinkedIn Premium (for shameless stalking in private mode). In 2020, it made ~$8.8B in revenue. For reference: that's more than double Twitter's yearly sales, but it's a small fraction of Microsoft's $143B 2020 total. Marketplaces could help it level up.