Due to the unfortunate fact that I have yet to hear back from my company experts, I had no choice but to move on to my secondary research before conducting my primary research and in doing so I was able to find many different companies that are already trying to service my target market, however, all in various different ways that ultimately provide substitutional or supplemental options for financial support. In considering the nature of my target audience, college students with busy schedules in need of flexible employment opportunities, I decided to characterize my competition into four types of jobs/gigs styles:
- On-Demand Jobs – Services such as Uber and DoorDash are attractive to some gig workers because they can usually start working at any time they are available since there are other users requesting services during all times, for the most part. Since they can clock in whenever they have the time, they are able to earn money around there primary schedule. My biggest competitor in this group would probably be DoorDash due to the fact that those interested in applying don’t need any money or skills to start with except for a vehicle and driver’s license if said vehicle is a car. This is the case with most services like DoorDash, however, they are known for their growing popularity in fleet drivers amongst their competitors those of which include giants like UberEats.
- Freelance Jobs- These types of jobs have become increasingly popular throughout the pandemic as companies are outsourcing many jobs in an effort to cut costs, as well as the fact that many employees are opting to working remotely if given the opportunity as opposed to physically going back to the office for work. Most users are already skilled in some department, the reason why they are able to profit off their services, however it’s important to keep in mind that not all college students enroll right after graduating high school and many are able to acquire real-world experience and accrue skills before deciding to enroll for college. Fiverr has been garnering a lot of attention in the media recently, being known for empowering the independent contractor in times when many of us are at our most vulnerable, financially speaking. Hundreds of thousands of people have been able to start their own businesses as sole proprietors with the help of Fiverr during the past year and perhaps this is the reason why LinkedIn decided to expand their market into the gig space last month, set to launch as early as September. It is clear these companies are staking out their piece of the market, however, as mentioned earlier these services are usually aimed towards skilled workers/professionals.
- Job Recruitment Companies- Job recruitment companies such as Indeed, ZipRecruiter, Monster.com, GoDaddy, CareerBuilder, etc are designed to find a job candidate for employers (the main client) to hire as soon as possible, hence the high amount of results available on these mediums. Because this is meant to be a time-effective method in hiring candidates (as per Indeed’s business model, for example), this cycle can seem redundant and may lack personalization, thus increasing the chances of employees and employer’s becoming disatisfied with what they find over time, increasing the rate of job turnover. As mentioned in previous posts, Indeed is currently dominating the job search market in the country as a whole, thus potentially posing a threat to existing submarkets.
- “Other” alternative gig opportunities- There are a number of apps on the market designed to help consumers not only save money but actually earn extra income via everyday activities that are being done without any extra rewards. For example, the concept behind Drum is that it allows users to make money through the recommendations, or “free advertising”, they make to those within their network and purchases made from those recommendations. This is what is known as affiliate marketing and is a type of passive income that is attractive to everyone, especially those on an already busy schedule. Many other apps providing some form of small passive income, such as Rakuten (formerly Ebates), Dosh, Drop, Swagbucks, Ibotta, etc, exist within the market, however, the earnings made from these channels are usually not enough to substitute another form of income and are primarily used for small, incremental savings over time. Although Drum has what seems to be a similar concept as far as business models go, this company differs from the rest in the category in that it is platform-based and earnings made from the service depend on the size and growth of the “advertiser’s” network as opposed to their current spending habits. In this case, the worker is making a conscious effort to persuade other’s to patronize certain establishments, much like brand influencing.
After organizing my competitive landscape according to what I found, I discovered a company that may turn out to be my biggest competitor within the gig search market, moreso than Craigslist or Indeed. Launched in 2017, Steady is an app that finds part-time and temporary that fits the seeker’s preferences in interests and schedule. I noticed that Steady also makes the user aware of the on-demand options available (DoorDash, Care.com, Postmates) as soon as they finish registering so users are able to access these others mediums directly transferreed from the platform. Althought this seemed like an organized one-stop shop at first glance, I found it to be limiting after viewing the results that were made available after selecting my preferences and then irrelevant after deselecting my filters. I think their layout is ideal in that it organizes and directs the user to what they want to ultimately do but I think including a larger amount of opportunities (somewhere inbetween Steady and Indeed) can enhance the results of the job search process. Ultimately, after conducting my secondary research I do believe there is still room for growth within this market, however, later stages will either support or disprove this theory.
This is excellent!