Odesk And Elance Merge

Two online virtual assistant and freelance companies, oDesk and Elance merge into one entity, two platforms. oDesk and Elance are two the largest outsourcing and virtual assistant marketplaces on the Internet today. They call themselves the “leading innovators driving the adoption of online work.”

The use of online work serves a very important purpose for the 8 million freelancers that they have registered in their businesses, combined. It allows people to gain employment or earn money from anywhere in the world, even working with two different currencies. Though oDesk and Elance merge into one company, they will still be using their native platforms until some changes are made.

Each company has their own unique style of providing virtual and digital freelancers to businesses all over the world.

Although Odesk and Elance merged, apparently the two are quite different.  Elance has been around since 1999, provides higher standards to ensure client commitment to hiring freelancers and better communication tools. oDesk offers a lower barrier to entry for clients, but it makes it more difficult for freelancers to get people who are serious enough to hire them.

Though oDesk and Elance merge, they will keep those platforms because they do not want to rock the boat with their existing client base. However, it is behind the scenes that the merger will change dramatically – technology, online security, venture capital and public trading.

Official Elance Email Announcing The Elance and Odesk Merger

oDesk and Elance Merge – Signaling a Revolution in How People Make Money

In the 21st century, trends change more rapidly now that at any point in human history. It is the same for the way people work and hire others. The internet has created unprecedented convenience when it comes to the way we live our lives – from shopping to socializing and of course, earning a paycheck.

On both an employer and an employee side, there are costs. Employers have commercial real estate, advertising, insurance, utilities, just as a start. Employees have childcare, gas, vehicle depreciation, etc. They are not compensated for time spent driving to and from work, nor do they enjoy the tax write-offs that businesses use.

In this light, working online benefits both sides – it saves massive amounts of time and money. When oDesk and Elance merge, it has the potential of ramping up the way people work online.

The freelance market has grown a lot over the past decade, but it is ready to reach a breakout point.

This is one of the biggest reasons that oDesk and Elance merge – to shape this crucial point in the online outsourcing game.

oDesk and Elance Merge To Help The Growing Demand for Freelancers

Combining capital and technology, these two companies will be able to help the growth of the demand for freelancers. The $44 billion dollar industry is set to explode, so these two companies will be able to create room for that growth.

What does that mean for the average freelancer?

It means that there will be an easier way to find work online, especially from companies who are demanding certain industries.

These industries include graphic design, writing, and social media management.

Odesk and Elance merge and the benefit is that people who have these skills can work for anyone in the world, as long as there are no language barriers. In the United States, the controversy of outsourcing jobs to other countries can work both ways – Americans can be outsourced online or they can work for foreign employers.

This can benefit the job market massively in the United States. Online outsourcing is not affected by unemployment trends in the U.S. When oDesk and Elance merge they can really give unemployed, skilled labor an advantage in the job-search game.

This also benefits entrepreneurs who have marketable skills and need a pool of potential clients to start building a business. They could possibly have a wider pool of clients to choose from. An upgraded system that makes tracking payments, deadlines, and daily tasks much easier can help them run their businesses more efficiently.

Finally, it benefits businesses – with Skype, Google Hangouts and other online tools, a company can have a team of people spread out over several time zones without incurring all of the cost.

oDesk and Elance Merge and Raise Industry Standards 

As the system evolves, there will be several elements that will be improved.

The first one is the platform. The oDesk and Elance merge means they will undoubtedly combine their technology forces. While the face of the two companies will remain the same for now, the underlying foundation will be strengthened.

It combines capital, including working capital. The power of the dollar can help strengthen technology, experiment with new ways of outsourcing, ramp up security and restructure their internal hierarchy.

It can improve the user experience, by taking feedback from a larger amount of people and working to improve on those challenges that hinder free flow of business.

It can invent new methodologies that will take outsourcing in new directions and make it the norm rather than the marginal.

The merger has the potential to achieve this kind of goal, to be the next Amazon or iTunes of freelancing, but it has a lot of headway to make first. Freelancers in general are not happy about this merger. They feel that merging the two very different companies will ruin each one's specific advantage in the marketplace.

There are also a certain demographic of freelancer – the more talented individuals who don't want to be paid the bare minimum and who don't want to wait around for work by people they don't know. They would rather establish more solid relationships by going offline and securing a steady stream of customers.

Though the Odesk and Elance Merge makes big promises about the benefits, time will tell if this is a good decision. Arguably, the future of online staffing is on the line, because although it is only 1% of the total global staffing recruitment, it is still a much-needed part of living and working in the 21st century. The fact that oDesk and Elance merge is a sign of a old way of working on a much larger scale – working from home.

I myself have used them myself to find different outsourcers to hire on  to my business so I can focus on the bigger items and tasks at hand.

With Elance specifically… I have hired countless content writers, social media marketers, and even wordpress designers. It's a great place to source some work and keep them accountable or you just don't pay. Quality will vary.

Hint. Make sure you interview and have CLEAR skills and goals you want accomplished BEFORE you hire.

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