Presentation given by Matt at Sydstart 2012

1. Welcome
To the
Future
Matt Barrie
CEO & Chairman You are here
Freelancer.com
email: matt@freelancer.com
twitter: @freelancer

2. We live in a remarkable
period in history..
a confluence of macro trends.
You are here

4. What does this all of this mean?
“Software is Eating the World”
– Marc Andreessen

5. What does this all of this mean?
Advertising
Physical Software

6. What does this all of this mean?
Telecommunications
Physical Software

7. What does this all of this mean?
Retail
Physical Software

8. What does this all of this mean?
Books
Physical Software

9. What does this all of this mean?
Scrapbooking
Physical Software

10. What does this all of this mean?
Notepad & Pen
Physical Software

11. What does this all of this mean?
Maps
Physical Software

12. What does this all of this mean?
Search
Physical Software

13. What does this all of this mean?
Music
Physical Software

14. What does this all of this mean?
Fashion
Physical Software

15. What does this all of this mean?
Point of Sale
Physical Software

16. What does this all of this mean?
Money
Physical Software

17. What does this all of this mean?
Retail Estate
Physical Software

18. What does this all of this mean?
Recruitment
Physical Software

19. What does this all of this mean?
Hang with Friends
Physical Software

20. What does this all of this mean?
Photography
Physical Software

21. What does this all of this mean?
Video
Physical Software

22. What does this all of this mean?
Travel
Physical Software

23. What does this all of this mean?
Reviews
Physical Software

24. What does this all of this mean?
News
Physical Software

25. What does this all of this mean?
Education
Physical Software

26. What does this all of this mean?
Coupons
Physical Software

27. What does this all of this mean?
Flea markets & Garage Sales
Physical Software

28. What does this all of this mean?
Healthcare
Physical Software

29. What does this all of this mean?
Drug Dealing
Physical Software

30. What does this all of this mean?
“The Reimagination of Everything”
- Mary Meeker

32. The other
70%
of the world’s
population are
about to join
the Internet.

33. It’s 2011.
World Population
7,030,000,000
Number on the Internet
2,267,233,742 (32.3%)
Source: Internet World Stats & United Nation

34. Worldwide Internet Penetration 2011
North America
Europe
266 million users 475 million users
77.4% penetration 58.4% penetration
Asia
825m (of 3834m)
21.5% penetration
Africa
110m (of 1014m)
Latin America 10.9% penetration
204m (of 592)
34.5% penetration

35. Worldwide Internet Growth 2000-2010
Africa 2357%
Middle East 1825%
Latin America / Caribbean 1033%
Asia 621%
World, Avg 445%
The other 5,000,000,000
Europe 352%
people are coming…
Oceania / Australia 179%
North America 146%
0% 500% 1000% 1500% 2000% 2500%

36. 81% of Users of top sites outside USA

37. Twice as many Chinese than Americans

38. The other 5 billion
are on an average wage
of $10 or less per day

39. The first thing they are
doing is looking to raise
their economic status.

40. And it’s never been easier
to learn a trade.

43. Free Stanford
Course in AI.
Over 170,000
enrolled, 8x the
total number of
students at
Stanford.

45. Simultaneously
every industry is now
digitised.

46. The World is Flat.

47. The World is Flat.

48. The World is Flat.

49. What does all this mean?
What does this all mean?
Goods Services
Today Tomorrow

50. We are the global labor exchange
Empowering Entrepreneurs. Globally.

51. Freelancer.com
Freelancer Globally
➔ World’s largest outsourcing marketplace
➔ Started May 2009
➔ ~ 4,200,000 users from >234 countries/regions
➔ ~ 2,400,000 posted projects to date
➔ ~ $150,000,000 spent through site to date,
$50m turnover in 2012
roughly equivalent to saving western businesses
$500m in costs..
➔ In top 300 websites globally (Alexa)

52. Key Statistics
• 180 employees across
Sydney, London, Manila,
Buenos Aires

53. Acquisitions to Date
• Scriptlance.com (Canada)
• GetAFreelancer (Sweden)
• EUFreelance.com (Europe)
• Lime Exchange (USA)
• Freelancer Booking Center (Germany)
• Freelancer.co.uk (United Kingdom)
• Freelancer HK (China SAR)
• Freelancer Australia (Australia)
• Webmaster Talk (USA)

54. We are in the early
stages of replicating a
country in software.

55. Population – 4,130,000 and growing
Covering 234
countries,
regions and
territories

56. Demographics- 20 regional & growing

57. Languages – ~20 by the end of 2012

58. Economy – 2,400,000 Projects so far

59. Economy – Global
–

60. Turnover US$ million

61. Workforce - Bangladesh
–

62. Workforce - Bangladesh
–

63. Workforce - Bangladesh
–

64. Workforce - Pakistan
–

65. Workforce - Nepal
–

66. Workforce - India
–

67. Workforce - Philippines
–

68. Banking System
We are the sole
provide of bank
accounts to
some freelancers
in emerging
economies

69. Currencies – 13 and growing. FX.
US Dollar
New Zealand Dollar
Australian Dollar
British Pounds
Hong Kong Dollar
Singapore Dollar –
–
Philippines Peso
Euro
Canadian Dollar
South African Rand
Indian Rupee
Jamaican Dollar
Chilean Peso

70. Traffic vs Competitors
Olympics
Neglects traffic to our 20 regional domains e.g. freelancer.co.uk

71. Users vs Competitors (Aug 2012)

72. Popularity vs Competitors

73. Design a fully
functional Dune
Buggy I can drive at
30km / hour
US $268 36 Bids
Outsourcing

74. 280 choices for
$290!
Crowdsourcing

75. Crowdfunding
Broke the CSS!

76. “We are becoming Hyper Connected”
- Tom Friedman

78. What does this all of this mean?
Distribution is
unprecedented.

79. What does this all of this mean?
Technology adoption is accelerating
% of US
Households

80. Not so long ago.
➔ In 1900, <10% of families owned a stove, or had
access to electricity or phones
➔ In 1915, <10% owned a car
➔ In 1930, <10% owned a fridge or washer
➔ In 1945, <10% owned a dryer or air-conditioning
➔ In 1960, <10% owned a dishwasher or colour TV
➔ In 1975, <10% owned a microwave
➔ In 1990, <10% owned a cell phone or Internet
➔ Today.. more than 90% own all the above.

81. Customers are buying faster

82. What does this all of this mean?
Computing mutates as it goes pervasive
Desktops, Laptops Mobile Phones, Tablets

83. .. and faster

84. .. and faster!

85. .. and faster!!

86. .. and faster!!!
1000
900
800
700
600
500
400 Facebook
(millions of
300
users)
200
100
0
Aug-05
Aug-07
Aug-09
Aug-11
Apr-06
Apr-08
Apr-10
Apr-12
Dec-04
Dec-06
Dec-08
Dec-10

87. .. and faster!!!!
1,600,000 in
3 days
100,000,000
users in 45 days
900,000 in 3 days
30 DAYS

88. What does this all of this mean?
Parabolic growth
comes from harnessing
distribution firehoses

89. Facebook Firehose

90. Apple Firehose

91. Google Firehose

92. Reddit Firehose

93. Other Unconventional Firehoses

94. Virality. Social. Reviews. Friends. Inviters.

96. What does this all of this mean?
Every business today is
an Internet business.

97. What does this all of this mean?
All this stuff is free.

98. Virtualised computer..
Only this computer is a
hotel reservation system!
• PBX
• Hotel Reservations
• Wifi
• Minibar
• Movies
Free!

99. What does this all of this mean?
All this stuff is cheap.

100. What does this all of this mean?
All this stuff is cheap.
Even if none of this stuff
makes sense to
you, freelancers can put it
together for you.. cheap!

101. What does this all of this mean?
You can start a company off a credit card

102. What does this all of this mean?
A new class of Venture Capital has arisen

103. What does this all of this mean?
Digg.com
• Outsourced original software for $60
• $6000 to get site all up and running
• $1200 for domain and 12 months hosting
Offer from Google for $200 million 4 years later

104. What does this all of this mean?
PCTools / Spyware Doctor
• Outsourced original software for $1000
• Bootstrapped to profitability
• Raised financing only at very late stage
Sold to Symantec for $300 million 6 years later.

105. What does this all of this mean?
RetailMeNot.com
• Built with $30 in one weekend
• Bootstrapped to $30m in revenues
Sold to WhaleShark for $90 million 5 years later.

106. The DotCom boom is over. Not.
3500
3000
Today.
2500
2000
1500 First dotcom Actual
Forecast (Fixed)
boom ‘over’.
1000
500 First dotcom
boom.
0
1990
2012
1992
1994
1996
1998
2000
2002
2004
2006
2008
2010
2014
2016
2018
2020

108. 5 Billion Internet Users by 2020
Mobile only
Internet Users
Internet
Users

109. Internet Scale
• 350m users in 6 years
• 950m users in 8 years
• 100m users in 45 days?!?

110. Internet Scale Growth
2% of.. The Internet.
Alexa rank #16 in the US

111. Internet Scale Revenue
• Founded in July 2007
• Financed in July 2008
• Makes silly flash games
• 2011 revenue $1.2 billion
• Founded Nov 2008
• 2011 revenue $1.6 billion
• Spams you deals of the day
• WSJ “made $1 billion in sales
faster than any other
business, ever”

112. Years to reach $1 billion in revenue
10
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
1976 1984 1986 1994 1994 1995 1997 1998 2007 2008
Year of Incorporation

113. What does this all of this mean?
The capital efficiency and
growth rates of Internet
business models are
unprecedented.. in history.

114. What does this all of this mean?
But.. are we ready
for growth like this?

115. Of course, are they ready?
Down 70% from IPO and
80% from peak

116. What does this all of this mean?
How would you cope
being a CEO of a company..
that took 1 year to get funding
did $1B in revenue in 2.5 years
went IPO in its 4th year?

117. What does this all of this mean?
Welcome to the
technology industry.

118. What does this all of this mean?
So what are you
waiting for?

119. What does this all of this mean?
The Future is Here.