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Ask HN: The fees of talent platforms. Are they justified?
When you find someone through a talent platform like Toptal, Upwork, Fiverr, you have to pay fees. On one hand, yes "I couldn't have found the person without the platform" but on the other hand, paying again and again each time I work with someone seems old as a business model.
And I don't really care about the "help" with invoices and payment etc.
Where is this whole market/business going in the next few years according to you guys?
- gregjor 3y agoPlatforms that match freelancers with customers offer a valuable service. Finding people on your own would take a lot of time, which you could assign a value to. "Justified" asks the wrong question. The platforms offer a service. If you use the service the platform can profit from the transaction. How long would such platforms stay in business if they had to operate for free, or only get a fee on the first engagement? Toptal doesn't operate as a platform like Upwork and Fiverr. They hire their people out and make money by marking up the rate/fee.
- yousss 3y agoI guess I agree with you on the "providing a service means they can profit from the transaction". Yeah I was wrong by using the word "Justify". I meant more like: is it something that will last? In other markets, like music and movies/shows, the (what I see as similar) "pay per track" business model didn't resist compared to the subscription business model.
- gregjor 3y agoNot the same model. Big difference between paying for something that has negligible cost to make more copies, and paying for someone to write software, a song, a movie. The agent model has already lasted a long time, in many domains where there's a need to match talent with customers.
- not_your_vase 3y agoWhat would be a better alternative? Pay once, access all, forever? I don't think there is a big enough pool of customers who would be willing to pay a price that would make it at least a bit profitable for the provider. (Especially if I think about new users, who never tried these services yet)
- yousss 3y agoWell, to me it feels like something that will end up to be somehow "free". Like, I don't pay to find restaurants or activities when I go one vacations. I feel like paying someone that will make a hard and custom search for me. That will spend time to do some screening maybe. But that kind of platforms, they only provide an infrastructure that stores talent data. And that maybe soon anybody would be able to replicate in some ways. Wdyt?