10 Million Freelancers Join LinkedIn’s Expanding Services Marketplace

This year alone, the IT sector alone has seen over 100,000 layoffs; at least some of these individuals, whether through need or preference, are not returning to full-time employment. In an attempt to take a piece of the action, LinkedIn introduced a freelancer marketplace in 2021. At present, while other freelancer marketplaces are facing difficulties, the Microsoft-owned company is providing its first significant report on the state of that.

According to LinkedIn, 10 million pages have been generated on its services marketplace, a 48% increase in only the past year. Averaging eight inquiries per minute, service requests—not real commercial engagements, which it is not disclosing—are also increasing, up 65% year over year.

To put those figures into perspective, consider that LinkedIn has just over 1 billion registered members as of right now. This means that only 1% of LinkedIn’s user base has expressed interest in the freelancing sector. Furthermore, it is unclear how much demand there is from buyers because LinkedIn does not disclose the number of services offered, the price that sellers are charging, or any other trends.

It is difficult to assess LinkedIn’s performance in relation to that of its rivals. Two sizable, publicly listed competitors, Fiverr and Upwork, focus more on the number of buyers on their platforms—roughly 4 million and 868,000, respectively—than on the number of sellers on their platforms. (Freelancers’ estimates range significantly from hundreds of thousands to millions on different networks.)

The original idea behind LinkedIn’s services marketplace was to take advantage of the emerging new work landscape following the COVID-19 epidemic in order to create new business opportunities and services for its members.

Then the tide came in and lifted other boats. Fiverr and Upwork share prices rose as a new class of knowledge workers opted for more flexible ways of working. These platforms also attracted a lot of interest from buyers, and businesses also turned to the “on-demand” model to meet their needs.

But fast forward to 2024, and after experiencing a drop in demand, freelance marketplaces are re-adjusting their business models, increasing acquisition rates to keep revenues high as more people choose to become permanent or simply move away from these platforms. This is the trend. Things may change if more AI services become established in the coming years.

However, LinkedIn’s 10 million figure and the fact that it is making the information public are noteworthy. It shows that, in spite of its modest progress to date, the business still sees room to grow into freelancing.

Currently, the company uses the freelancing platform to generate premium subscriptions and build engagement, but it has goals to eventually look into ways to incorporate more formal pricing.

By purchasing the Premium Business tier, users can increase the visibility of their freelancer profile on LinkedIn, which is referred to as a Service Page. According to LinkedIn, revenue from premium subscriptions has increased by 51% this fiscal year, totaling $1.7 billion. However, this still only represents a small portion of the company’s overall earnings, which exceeded $16 billion in the most recent fiscal year.