A Platform for Doers? Fiverr and the Gig Economy

Abstract

Platforms play an increasingly prominent role in today’s increasingly digital economy. As big tech companies like Alphabet, Meta and Alibaba have built expansive ecosystems of platforms, digital platforms have also emerged within the gig economy. Acknowledging the fact that the gig economy has rapidly grown in recent years, this paper focuses on Fiverr, a leading online freelancing platform in the gig economy that allows individuals to sell their services to anyone who can access it. We undertake a longitudinal case study, exploring and analyzing how Fiverr has developed and scaled its platform business over time to globally provide a broadening range of services. We explain growth drivers and innovation strategies and explore the tensions that emerge in the operation of the platform from favoring buyers. Additionally, we contextualize Fiverr and online freelancing more generally within two major socio-technical developments in recent years, the Covid-19 pandemic and the rise of generative AI, exploring how such platforms are dealing with and have adapted to the challenges these turbulent times are causing.

Keywords: platform, gig economy, Fiverr, online labour platform, case study, Covid-19, generative AI

JEL Classification: e20, f66, l21, l84, j20, o33