According to the latest news, LinkedIn is all set to launch its new service – “Locate and Hire Freelancers” from September onwards. This new vertical will be termed LinkedIn Marketplaces. This latest service by LinkedIn will compete directly with several other freelance hiring sites like Upwork and Fiverr.

Industry insiders say that LinkedIn had started working on the platform in October 2019 and it was when LinkedIn had acquired assets to a startup called UpCounsel that connected freelance lawyers with businesses. The former CEO of UpCounsel – Matt Faustman, is leading the team responsible for the development of marketplaces.

This has not officially announced Marketplaces, Matt Faustman’s experience section in LinkedIn says him “Marketplaces Product Lead’.

Also, LinkedIn released an information statement saying that the worldwide pandemic situation saw an increase in demand for the freelance workforce. There has been a considerable rise in demand for freelance services on LinkedIn, with particular demands for executive coaching, design, marketing, and software development. It was also quoted by the spokesperson that in the future LinkedIn will be designing new ways to share more about the services you can offer directly through LinkedIn profiles.

How will it work?

It will work both ways. LinkedIn will not only allow the freelancers to tell about their experiences and history but will also allow businesses that need the services to post requests for proposals. This RPF or Rate for Proposal will allow businesses the opportunity to compare between freelancers. Also, it does not justify that cheaper is better, but it certainly is a great way to gauge the market for rates of a specific type of service.

Like most job hiring, LinkedIn Marketplaces will provide ample opportunities for both parties to review each other so that the incentives and opportunities are equally balanced and everyone plays nicely.

But, the services will be paid for and out of the revenue, freelancers earn. All is not charity, after all.

More to the services and in addition to searching for freelancers, users will possibly be able to post their proposal too to attract freelancers for all specific job types. And, after each work is completed clients will be able to post their review for the hired freelancer.

As of now, freelancers and a lot of them use the LinkedIn platform to promote themselves as experts. But after LinkedIn Marketplaces goes LIVE, they can easily bid for RPFs, advertise them, and maybe also land a client.

LinkedIn knows that it is tough for freelancers now to find a whole lot of value over the platform. And this is why the site has realized the need to make advances in content marketing.

LinkedIn’s Editor in Chief – Daniel Roth recently posted a tweet “building out our creator management team and I’m hiring someone to lead it”. Roth even called in for resumes for the posts.

In the past year, LinkedIn has taken some major steps towards increasing its advertising opportunities. And now it is all setting up to move even further.