What is fiverr?

Fiverr is a global online marketplace offering tasks and services, beginning at a cost of $5 per job performed, from which it gets its name. The site is primarily used by freelancers who use Fiverr to offer services to customers worldwide. Currently, Fiverr lists more than three million services on the site that range between $5 and $500.

History❥

Fiverr was founded by Shai Wininger and Micha Kaufman on February 1, 2010, and is headquartered in Tel Aviv, Israel. Wininger came up with the concept of a marketplace that would provide a two sided platform for people to buy and sell a variety of digital services typically offered by freelance contractors (e.g. freelancers). Services offered on the site include writing, translation, graphic design, video editing and programming. Fiverr’s services start at $5, which is what the company’s name is based on and can go up to thousands of dollars with Gig Extras. Each service offered is called a "Gig".

The website was launched in early 2010 and by 2012 was hosting over 1.3 million Gigs. The website transaction volume has grown 600% since 2011. Additionally, Fiverr.com has been ranked among the top 100 most popular sites in the U.S. and top 200 in the world since the beginning of 2013.

On June 1, 2010, Fiverr received a seed investment of US$1 million from Cubit Investments.

On May 3, 2012, Fiverr secured US$15 million in funding from Accel Partners and Bessemer Venture Partners, bringing the company's total funding to US$20 million.

On December 2013, Fiverr released their iOS app in the Apple App Store.

On March 2014, Fiverr released their Android app in the Google Play store.

During August 2014, Fiverr announced that it has raised $30 million in a Series C round of funding from Bessemer Venture Partners, Accel (formerly known as Accel Partners) and other investors. The round brings their total funding to date to $50 million.
In October 2015, Amazon.com started legal action against 1,114 Fiverr sellers it claims provide fake reviews on the US version of its website. Fiverr did not dispute Amazon’s allegations and stated: “As Amazon noted, we have worked closely together to remove services that violate our terms of use, and respond promptly to any reports of inappropriate content.”

In November 2015, Fiverr announced that it had raised $60 million in a Series D round of funding, led by Square Peg Capital. The round brings their total funding to date to $110 million. At the same time, the company announced that it was expanding the marketplace to allow sellers the ability to price productized services, known as Gigs, at prices above the original USD $5 minimum.

Major Gigs Categories on Fiverr

Graphics & Design
Digital Marketing
Writing & Translation
Video & Animation
Music & Audio
Programming & Tech
Advertising
Business
Lifestyle
Gifts
Fun & Bizarre
some more

Function and demographics:

Fiverr serves to allow listing and applying for small one-off jobs online. Jobs listed are diverse and range from "get a well-designed business card" to "help with HTML, JavaScript, CSS, and JQuery". Fiverr is a company built on the model of listing Temporary work positions. Freelancers work in a variety of workplaces, ranging from office to at home.

While the Fiverr marketplace may be dominated by millennials (only two percent of sellers are over the age of 55), the company has stated that the rate of sellers aged 55–64 grew 375 percent at the end of the second quarter of 2015, compared with the year before.

Criticism:

Fiverr was especially criticized earlier on for advertising very cheap graphic services. At the end of 2014, Fiverr's Facebook-Page advertisement saying "You're paying too much for design" caused a public outcry. This criticism has been largely resolved, since Fiverr lifted the five dollar base price and began allowing logo designers, graphic artists, voice over artists and other Sellers in Categories across the marketplace, to charge the base prices they set for themselves.

More recently, Fiverr has come under fire for portraying unhealthy living and excesses in work behaviours as ideals to live up to.This criticism began when people on Twitter began posting images of the posters and negative statements about their implied messaging.