Startup oDesk received rave reviews at this years TechCrunch50 conference thanks to its innovative workplace platform. The startup was voted as demopit winner with the launch of a new iPhone application that allows project administrators to monitor the work stream of their team members while they’re on the go.
Today, oDesk’s “oConomy” meter, which is the amount of money that is earned from workers on oDesk, hit $100 million. The oConomy showcases data from the work activity of 350,000+ oDesk users in over 150 countries.
oDesk has been around for a while, offering a “marketplace for talent” that makes it easy to hire workers remotely. The company currently has over 340,000 providers, with 12,200+ jobs that are open. oDesk has also launched an API Center to encourage developers to create custom workspaces around oDesk tools. The API allows for users to log-in from outside of oDesk’s applications, the ability to search oDesk’s provider data and profiles, and lets users retrieve snapshots of worker activities.
that’s pretty cool
Man I remember bookmarking Odesk in my favourites a few years ago, forecasting that it would dominate its category of “outsourcing code online”.. love it
Thing about odesk, they have no security around bypassing their system for payments. I just go on there, post a job, IM the worker, and work around their 14% fees.
The problem with that approach is that you lose all the monitoring and security functions provided by oDesk. I have bought about 3500 hours of work on odesk and love it.
I love oDesk and the tools, but the high fees are an issue. I have some developer resources I knew personally, and wanted to use oDesk to manage them. I am not paying the commission for those guys to work as providers in oDesk even though I love the centralized administration. I figured out a way to add them to the teams, and just pay them outside of odesk. I really don’t want to do it that way, but thats what I did. I think oDesk has to facilitate that scenario, and other options to reduce the commission overage. Other sites will compete and beat them if they don’t change the cost factors IMHO.
oDesk is perfect if you want to dip in the pool of cheap (third world) developers and freelancers.. but as an European (or an American for that matter) due to the sometimes insane competitive hourly wages ($3 a hour for a PHP developer??) it’s nearly impossible to make a decent living out of it..
oDesk is a great way for indie developers to get started. That’s how you can get your first client. The trick is to make sure you leave the system as fast you can and make it on your own, for better rates.
That’s mean you should not be a developer in the first place if you want to compete in the lower range of development.
Either create high quality service or go find work elsewhere others than developer
Yep, $3/hr is about the right price for a PHP developer. On the other hand, you’ll get your feet wet learning how to code gray/black hat SEO sites, so there’s always that.
While I appreciate that oDesk is doing great things for some, I echo the sentiment that the pay rates they list are VERY low.
As a test, I just went to sign up for some PowerPoint consulting. They aren’t even paying minimum wage to do some very high level work. There is no way that I could work for that rate. My minimum rate for consulting is well over what they say the top people get for positions in that area. Several of the jobs wanted to pay less than my hourly rate for the entire job.
Just because other places in the world can survive on it doesn’t mean that a US contractor should have to work for less than minimum wage. (IMHO)
We’ve used Odesk and are very happy with the quality. Odesk has really surpassed other sites such as eLance because Odesk has an incredible library of tests that its providers (workers) can take to show their capabilities. As a company hiring a worker for a job you can sort through providers by their test scores and find people that have the specific talents you seek. Great job Odesk.
Services like Odesk show that we are truly living in a global economy now. It’s hard for Americans and Europeans to compete with the loooooooow wages of Indians.
I think that the biz world is in a transformation phase. A transformation phase that we have seen before.
There once was a time when all -a lot of- the textile came from Europe. But once developing countries got in on the gig, there was no competing with them.
But that didn’t mean the end of the fashion industry here in Europe. The focus simply shifted from production to DESIGN.
And we all know the power of European designer brands.
People tend to forget that transformation also brings in OPPORTUNITY. This is the best time to start transforming yourself.
Why don’t freelance consultants become employers? Why don’t you go with the flow and simply leverage the skills of off shore talent?
As a consultant in America or Europe, you have a great insight into the culture and workings of your own area. A lot of startups and small biz want to outsource their projects. But they simply haven’t got the skills to effectively do this.
YOU, the consultant, can! So instead of selling your own technical/process skills, why not sell your management skills and provide a virtual off shore workforce?
The textile industry went from production to design. It’s time that ‘Brain Services’ go from production to MANAGEMENT.
You are correct. It’s really just about having the right mindset and the ability to think out of the box.
Instead of waisting time complaining on things, why not devote time into more useful activities.
With oDesk, I believe you just have to learn the basics and spot for opportunities to maximize your earning potential using the services offered by the site.
Your point is good, but your example of textiles makes me laugh. Don’t get me wrong, but I haven’t seen a single European/American who knows world history earlier than the colonial era. Do you have ANY clue as to what happened before colonization began? Do you know the largest textile markets in the world BEFORE say 12th century AD?
No, the work is not going to shift from “manual” to “brainy”. All the innovations that took place were in Europe/US because that is how the world was – it was forced to follow a model that was created by the “West”. In a globalized world, this is not the case.
This is the same mentality – slavery 2.0 revisited! So you think the Europeans and Americans will be the “masters” and employ cheap labor from India and Russia? Nopes, sorry, not gonna happen! Google is American, but the next Google is more probable to be in Beijing than CA.
Do not complain about people quoting rates of $3. If you throw peanuts , you will attract monkeys.
I have used odesk and paid rates of $15 per hour because that is what is the rate of experienced guys in that field.
Much depends on what you want.