Upwork

Upwork Inc.

Company type	Public
Industry	Freelance marketplace
Predecessor	Elance Inc., oDesk Corp.
Founded	2013 (2013)
Headquarters	Santa Clara and San Francisco, California , United States
Area served	Worldwide
Key people	Hayden Brown (CEO)
Products	Freelance marketplace platform
Website	upwork.com

Upwork Inc.—previously known as Elance-oDesk—is a U.S.-based freelancing marketplace with headquarters situated in Santa Clara and San Francisco, California. The organization emerged in 2013 following the merger of Elance Inc. and oDesk Corp., initially operating under the name Elance-oDesk before adopting the Upwork brand in 2015.

In March 2022, Upwork earned recognition by being included in Time magazine's TIME100 Most Influential Companies list for that year.

History

Elance was established in 1998 by Bernard Sheth, an MIT alumnus, along with Srini Anumolu, who brought experience from Wall Street. The company moved its base to Sunnyvale, California, in December 1999. Its inaugural offering was the Elance Small Business Marketplace.

oDesk was launched in 2003 by Odysseas Tsatalos and Stratis Karamanlakis. It began as a staffing agency before transforming into an online platform facilitating remote work arrangements.

In 2009, Elance suffered a security incident that compromised personal information of more than 1.3 million users.

The merger between Elance and oDesk was publicly announced on December 18, 2013, resulting in the creation of Elance-oDesk. Two years later, the entity rebranded to Upwork while enhancing its platform and discontinuing the Elance brand.

Upwork appeared consecutively on the Inc. 5000 list from 2009 through 2014 and submitted its initial public offering paperwork on October 3, 2018.

Following sanctions related to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Upwork halted services for freelancers and clients located in Russia and Belarus on March 7, 2022.

Service and business model

The platform facilitates connections between companies and independent professionals for freelance engagements. Clients create job postings outlining project details and budget ranges, either inviting specific freelancers or opening applications to all interested parties. Upon selection, a contract is issued detailing work hours, compensation rates, and deadlines. Freelancers are required to acquire "connects" to submit proposals for posted jobs.

Size, scope, and changes

As of March 2017, Upwork boasted a user base of 14 million individuals spanning 180 countries, with annual freelancer billings reaching $1 billion. In 2020, the company removed approximately 1.8 million freelancers from its platform to concentrate on servicing Fortune 500 corporations rather than smaller clients seeking short-term projects. CEO Hayden Brown emphasized a "skill gap" between client demands and freelancer qualifications as a key reason behind this reduction of lower-tier freelancers.

In October 2020, Upwork launched "Project Catalog," a feature allowing freelancers and agencies to present predefined services at set prices, resembling offerings found on Fiverr.