After some research, I have found the top competitors for my idea of a streamlined platform to post and find local gigs/jobs to be Craigslist, Indeed, ZipRecruiter, Glassdoor and Upshift as direct competitors and Facebook, Uber Eats, and Door Dash to be indirect competitors with Indeed taking first place, due to its growing popularity and owning the majority of the market share for job boards and listing services in the country and a very large share worldwide, and ZipRecruiter coming in at a close second. 

However, at first, I believed convenient job apps like Uber Eats, DoorDash and Postmates to be the top competitors to my idea as they target those who are either inexperienced or focused on responsibilities and looking for a side job. It’s flexibility to most schedules make these options so attractive to users, the reason why these companies have grown so much, especially during this pandemic. But in considering my idea’s other competitors, I still believe there can be room for growth in the market for different reasons.  

I think platforms like Indeed can improve on design when it comes to its organization of readability, especially when exposing users to such a large amount of content. I also think an in-app messaging feature can promote communication amongst parties with questions or concerns. Another point I touched in my assignment was that there was not much emphasis on the gigs offered on the site as opposed to its concentration on traditional, hourly, jobs/careers. In considering Indeed’s advantage, I think their pricing model would be one of its main advantages, however, can becomes a problem as employers flood the site and discourage users. It’s unclear whether I would want to pursue that similar route as far as my value proposition goes because of its unclear long-term results. Clearly this is a saturated market which can always deter future competitors from entering but as mentioned in the beginning I believe it can still be worth pursuing.