Sribu Founder Ryan Gondokusumo on SribuLancer as His Market Expansion Strategy

Freelancing is a recent phenomenon that is becoming very prevalent. People have discovered reasons to be self employed rather than be bound to companies. More than a few took their first steps by taking side jobs before finally committing to become full time freelancers. They argue that freelancing fits their characters better or the income from freelancing already meets their needs.

There are various professions available, such as IT projects developer, web designer, content writer, and translator. From the companies’ point of view, the freelancers are needed because they can work per project. Responding to this trend, Ryan Gondokusumo, the founder of Sribu, decided to expand his business by introducing SribuLancer.

The potential of this kind of business is huge, considering that there are more and more companies need freelancers and no local company has accommodated those needs yet.

“When we look for freelancers through Google, sometimes we do not get proper results and when we randomly look for freelancers there's a chance that they don't do the job after they get paid. As a result, we wasted time and money. Therefore, we see an opportunity from this existing problem", Ryan told DailySocial recently.

Ryan also took this step to expand the market. According to him, the difference between Sribu and SribuLancer is that SribuLancer accommodates not only design jobs but also programming or software development, writing, video-making, voice over, data entry, and many more. “One thing for sure, at the time these services can only be performed and delivered online. We expect the experience and skill sets that we have in outsourcing and crowdsourcing can be useful in developing the SribuLancer platform".

Ryan has no plans to to merge these two companies. SribuLancer will be a different platform. "Sribu has been known as the crowdsourcing contest platform with a focus on design and we will leave it be. Meanwhile, SribuLancer will focus on becoming a freelancing or outsourcing platform. The positioning of each platform is very clear."

At the moment, SribuLancer is in beta as the company is still testing the market. “As we go, we will discover the response through our survey and gradually aim to reach the product market fit. Only then will Ryan begin advertising the service through Google, Facebook, and other online outlets.

Thus far, we're familiar with Freelancer.com which has the same model as SribuLancer. In general, both websites offer identical services. The freelancers may search for projects based on categories that match their skills.

The monetisation method of both websites is also similar, by taking a commission from completed jobs. The companies may post available projects which freelancers can apply. However, SribuLancer will keep the information of payment a secret until the jobs are completed. This is to guarantee that the employers get the jobs done, and the freelancers get their payment as well.

SribuLancer sets its commission at 10-15 percent, but it is still adjustable at the moment since it is still in the market testing stage. In this regard, SribuLancer will see how the market responds. At first, people may register for free, but it is not out of the question that SribuLancer will introduce premium service in the future.

Ryan said that the full version of SribuLancer will be launched in two or three months from now. “The plan is we will prove our business model before finding out whether we can gain initial traction while improving our current MVP and find out which functions are needed by potential users on client and freelancer sides on the SribuLancer platform”

[translation by Rifku Aria Nugraha and Aulia Masna]