2015 was an incredible year for the world's largest freelancing and crowdsourcing marketplace! Quite a number of great things happened on the site in the past 12 months. Here's a look back on the year's best moments.
The year kicked off with improved multilingual support, which enabled users to send support messages in more languages than ever before.
For contests, Annotations (for instant feedback on entries) and Urgent Upgrade (for getting entries fast) were rolled out. Entries can now be bought and sold also, so employers have more options to work with.
Video Calling was released, making project collaboration much easier; as well as the HireMe Work Signature, which helps freelancers discover more job opportunities.
Local Jobs launched in May, which made location-specific projects possible.
Both the Desktop App and Mobile App got comprehensive updates too, and they're more reliable than ever.
Expansion
Freelancer expanded its already massive community with a number of acquisitions in 2015. Job aggregation marketplace DoNanza, Spanish online marketplace ProjectLinkr, and secure online payments provider Escrow are now part of Freelancer.
Jobs
Content took center stage early in 2015, according to the First Quarter Fast 50 Report. Writing-related projects all went up in the first quarter, and eBook writing, creative writing, content writing, and ghostwriting lead the pack.
Mobilegeddon's effect was evident in the Second Quarter Fast 50 Report. Mobile-related projects showed strong growth, with Android jobs besting Apple jobs.
The Third Quarter Fast 50 Report heralded Microsoft's comeback. The demand for Windows-related skills increased, with Windows Desktop projects becoming the fastest-growing online jobs in Q3 2015.
Contests
NASA and Freelancer teamed up this year to produce tools for space exploration efforts. Freelancer supported NASA Tournament Labs – a project within their Center of Excellence for Collaborative Innovation (CoECI) – in using crowdsourcing with Freelancer Contests. The aim was to help provide a number of CAD models for tools to be used by the Robonaut 2 (R2, the first humanoid robot in space) on the International Space Station. Check out Freelancer Contests for more details on the contests and the winners.
Ignacio Calvo and Jocelyn Richard from Canada won the NASA Astronaut Smartwatch App Interface Design Challenge. Check out our Q&A with the winners and find out how they did it.
The classic Freelancer Expose Our Logo 2015 Contest once again took the Freelancer logo all over the world. Entries came in from over 40 countries, which included Belgium, Dubai, India, the USA, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Venezuela, among others.
Users
Freelancer wouldn't be anywhere without its 17 million users. Here are some of the year's best success stories to inspire and motivate you for 2016.
Mar Fandos, an illustrator from Argentina, found her calling on the site.
IT consultant Martin Kingsley from Australia found it possible to be a one-man business owner thanks to Freelancer.
Preferred Freelancer Muhammad Fasieh from Pakistan was able to supercharge his career growth with non-stop freelancing.
Eco-friendly clothing maker Sonja Bar-Am found the designer she needed on Freelancer.
University student Colt Pomeroy from the USA shares how he manages to earn money while studying because of Freelancer.
Awards
The site scooped up four Webby Awards this year – Best Employment Website, Best Professional Services Website, People's Voice Award for Employment, and People's Voice Award for Professional Services.
Here's CEO Matt Barrie's five-word Webbys speech.
Freelancer.com also took home several Stevie Awards in 2015:
Gold Stevie, Company of the Year – Internet/New Media
Gold Stevie, Company of the Year – Communications Team of the Year
Silver Stevie, Communications or PR Campaign of the Year – Public Affairs
Silver Stevie, Executive of the Year – Business Services
Silver Stevie, Company of the Year – Business or Professional Services
Silver Stevie, Website of the Year – Business Services
Bronze Stevie, Executive of the Year – Internet/New Media
Bronze Stevie, Communications, Investor Relations or PR Executive of the Year
Bronze Stevie, App of the Year – Business Services
People's Choice – Internet/New Media
People's Choice – Media & Entertainment and Business Services
People's Choice Top Winner – Favorite Companies
2015 saw a bigger and better Freelancer, and we couldn't have achieved it without our 17 million users. Thank you and see you next year!
