California based global freelancing website Odesk has been relaunched as Upwork. This development comes 18 months after the company merged with another freelancing Website Elance. The company aims to bring Elance users too to Upwork, resulting in a single freelance marketplace.
Upwork.com homepage
“We recently shared that we’ll focus innovation on oDesk, with the ultimate goal of moving to one combined platform. Well that time is now and we can’t wait to start this next chapter with you.”, Upwork CEO Stephane Kasriel said in a statement on May 4, 2015.
“We chose Upwork to better convey our vision and represent our current and future community. It’s a name that inspires us and we hope it will inspire you as well”, he further added describing the idea behind the name upwork.
In December 2013, Odesk had announced that it would sign a definitive agreement to merge with Elance, to create an online workplace for a combined total 8 million registered individuals. Since then, the speculations of the merger of platform have been rife. The company aims to complete the merger within a year.
oDesk was founded in 2003 by Greek entrepreneurs Odysseas Tsatalos and Stratis Karamanlakis. It is headquartered at Redwood City, California.
Odesk/Upwork allows clients to interview, hire and work with freelancers and agencies through its website. The modus operandi is that the prospective clients can post jobs for free, and freelancers may create profiles and bid on jobs, also for free. The client awards the jobs to selected freelancer. The company deducts 10% of the income from freelancers, as service charges.