Fiverr Raises $30M for Online Services Marketplace

Fiverr Raises $30M for Online Services Marketplace(blogs.wsj.com)

31 points by louhong 11 years ago | 46 comments

sgdesign 11 years ago |

Relevant: my post about my experiences hiring logo designers on Fiverr from last week: https://medium.com/@sachagreif/in-the-past-couple-years-star...

(HN thread here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8152631)

Kiro 11 years ago | |

I've bought a couple of logos as well and have been very happy with the result every time. After the first iteration I would give feedback and they would change it accordingly. I don't care if they based it on a template as long as they deliver something usable (it's $5!). It's either that or use one of the lousy logo generators out there. Even if all they do is manipulating a template it's still better than what I will ever be able to do myself.

gabzuka 11 years ago | | |

The problem is not if it's a template, it is if they're using someone elses work and passing it as their own

DonaldH 11 years ago |

My sole experience with Fiverr was terrible. I paid $35 to their highest-rated logo designer, who promptly delivered the worst logo I had ever seen. I'm not usually one to complain, but I was so unimpressed that I told the seller that I was not happy with the logo. His response was basically "I don't care. See ya!" I will never use Fiverr again. I've had much better luck with Elance.

majani 11 years ago | |

I don't think a site tailored for 5$ errands is where you should have been shopping for something as critical as a logo design.

MichaelApproved 11 years ago | |

In my experience, Fiverr isn't good with creative work. It's a system that values volume and you're likely going to be getting someone who systematized things as much as possible which leads to a lot of canned fulfillment. That tends to be terrible for creative work.

Fiverr is worth trying again but next time use it for non-creative work. Also, don't allow yourself to get up-sold initially, keep things at $5. Toss a few fivers around and experiment. Like any network of people, you'll have some terrible participants and also great ones.

BTW - out of curiosity, would you care to link to the logo?

Edit: reading more about copyright infringement of designers on fivver. This is a huge problem. I would stay away from any creative work from anyone on fivver, regardless of their rating. Especially for something as critical as a logo.

Also note that most stock photo companies specifically say that you can't use their images in logos so you can't even buy the stock photo if you're comfortable with the stock photo as the logo.

rxdazn 11 years ago | |

what kind of logo did you even expect for $35 though?...

DonaldH 11 years ago | | |

Nike's logo cost $35. Twitter's logo cost $15.

I honestly didn't expect anything good, despite the satisfaction guarantees and "examples of past work" on the seller's profile. I expected to receive something very mediocre, and I was STILL disappointed.

ghiculescu 11 years ago |

My prediction: consistent inflation causes Fiverr gigs to consistently decrease in value until they boldly "pivot" to Tenerr in 2020.

It sounds like a joke, but seriously, the name of their business does seem like it could have some ramifications in the long run.

superasn 11 years ago | |

I have been a regular buyer on fiverr and the transition I see so far is that the Gig is often just a "sample", while the main service offered is in the form of extras (which can be of any value like $10, $50, etc).

Example: http://www.fiverr.com/calimode/your-professional-and-kind-sp...

petercooper 11 years ago | |

I don't disagree, but I've been continually impressed with how "pound shops" (dollar/99 cent stores in the US) have coped between the mid 90s and now. It seems advances in logistics, manufacturing and the ease of international trade have counteracted inflation to a certain point, at least when it comes to the cheap crud those stores tend to sell :-)

QuasiAlon 11 years ago | | |

J.C. Penny was founded in 1902 and for years everything in the store cost a penny :). Same goes for the price of coke that stayed at a penny for 70+ years :).

So I guess in the very long run $5 isn't sustainable (and they're going at that direction btw... $5 is just the starting point nowadays)

mbesto 11 years ago | | |

Except those shops operate margins based on economies of scale (manufacturing) while fiverr does not (services).

GFischer 11 years ago | |

They probably won't :) . See: dollar stores

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dollar_General

edit: also 100 yen stores, etc:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Variety_store

Fiverr is the digital equivalent.

adrianwaj 11 years ago | |

Maybe 5 mBTC ? (the site takes bitcoin already - and I think that should be clearer)

yitchelle 11 years ago | |

You can cut and dice it in many different ways. I am starting to see what you get get for a Fiverr is getting more and more diluted. You will have to pay extra to get some useful additions.

imjk 11 years ago |

I see a trend of Hacker News envy emerging: The news of any startup (other than a Y Combinator company) that raises a large sum of money is derided and accompanied by a series of anecdotes of poor experiences.

I think there's so much good discussion to be had about fiverr. They created this huge marketplace for low cost services. They have impressive UI. They provide a win-win for both buyer and seller. They provide a great case study on the foot-in-the-door sales methodology through their impressive upsell system. This is a very unique and original business idea that has been executed very well on many accounts.

imjk 11 years ago | |

And just to add my own personal anecdote, I've had a very good personal experience ordering a design on fiverr. I ordered a logo for just the minimum $5 (FIVE DOLLARS!) knowing full well that I'd have to pay an additional $20 if I wanted the PSD file after. I considered this a relatively risk free way to get a logo concept (I'd pay $5 all day for logo concepts). I actually received two different logos -- both of which were surprisingly good -- and had the option to have one of them edited once more, which I did. I gladly paid for the psd file after. Also, the whole flow of the process through their UI was seamless too.

iLoch 11 years ago | | |

The trouble is that the likelihood of that logo actually being unique is extremely low.

kenrose 11 years ago |

Lots of discussion about poor experience with logo design. Fiverr has a lot of other services and I agree that it can be difficult to separate out the wheat from the chaff. As an anecdotal example of a positive experience though, I used Fiverr a few months ago to hire various musicians singing Happy Birthday in a video as a birthday present for my wife. Was the quality a bit amateurish? Sure. Did my wife care? No. Quite the opposite, she loved it.

I think if people expect to get professional quality work from Fiverr, overall they'll be disappointed. However, for fun, personal projects, where production value is not prized, it's fantastic and I think this niche is where they can start to grow.

GFischer 11 years ago | |

A bit offtopic: Great idea :) . It's really hard to find customized birthday presents (it was actually a startup idea that was floating around at several startup meetings I attended).

ihatehandles 11 years ago |

I've had great experiences with voice-over services etc, but I'm a bit hesitant with creative work like logos (most just run through online logo creators). I do earn some[0] though creating small AngularJS directives and services, pays for my Digital Ocean dev box

[0] http://www.fiverr.com/ihatehandles/help-you-with-angularjs-c...

collypops 11 years ago |

That's $29,999,995 more than it needed.

dbg31415 11 years ago |

You get what you pay for.

The cheaper, or more fixed-price, the service... the worse the quality is going to be. On the flip side... salesmen are liars... so... you're kinda screwed as a client.

Anyway... $2.99 for a bucket of beef?! Sounds like a great deal...

* The League / Yobogoya on Vimeo || http://vimeo.com/35722138

dharma1 11 years ago |

I think the idea and user experience of fiverr is good but $5 is too little to get anything done properly. The people doing the work end up being ripped off and not caring. You usually end up paying the extras people charge on Fiverr to get anything remotely useful

I've used it a couple of times for voiceovers - worked well if you can find the right person.

imjk 11 years ago | |

Have you actually used the service before? They have a very good upsell service for order add-ons, a lot of them with fees much greater than the $5. For many sellers, the $5 is just a foot-in-the-door sales method to acquire the customer, much like the freemium model for saas companies. They may lose money on the initial $5 order, but they make much more on the percentage of customers who purchase add-on items. This is no different than other customer acquisitions strategies, if not cheaper. See how much you need to spend to acquire a design or voiceover customer via Adwords, as an example.

milge 11 years ago |

I can see people getting screwed on design/logos. That type of thing is a creative process. I've heard good things about fiverr from colleagues. I haven't used it yet, but plan on it soon for some voice work. I think something like voice work could work well since it's not really open to interpretation like design is.

seanwalker08 11 years ago |

Fiverr is the harbor freight of online marketplaces. You can find gems, but its hit and miss.

donniezazen 11 years ago |

I have such a bad experience with Fiverr when it comes to purchasing Android icons. They usually return with either poor quality icons or literally stolen icons from internet.

astrodust 11 years ago | |

It's a race to the bottom and you're surprised that's how they do it?

donniezazen 11 years ago | | |

But how can you justify stealing.

ryanSrich 11 years ago | |

Sorry but you can't expect quality when purchasing from Fiverr. It's essentially the dollar store of internet services.

donniezazen 11 years ago | | |

Are you going to be fine if someone steals an icon off internet and charges you $5 for it?