Online Marketplace Fiverr To Lay Off 30% of Workforce In AI Push 41
Fiverr is laying off 250 employees, or about 30% of its workforce, as it restructures to become an "AI-first" company. "We are launching a transformation for Fiverr, to turn Fiverr into an AI-first company that's leaner, faster, with a modern AI-focused tech infrastructure, a smaller team, each with substantially greater productivity, and far fewer management layers," CEO Micha Kaufman said. Reuters reports: While it isn't clear what kinds of jobs will be impacted, Fiverr operates a self-service digital marketplace where freelancers can connect with businesses or individuals requiring digital services like graphic design, editing or programming. Most processes on the platform take place with minimal employee intervention as ordering, delivery and payments are automated.
The company's name comes from most gigs starting at $5 initially, but as the business grew, the firm has introduced subscription services and raised the bar for service prices. Fiverr said it does not expect the job cuts to materially impact business activities across the marketplace in the near term and plans to reinvest part of the savings in the business.
The company's name comes from most gigs starting at $5 initially, but as the business grew, the firm has introduced subscription services and raised the bar for service prices. Fiverr said it does not expect the job cuts to materially impact business activities across the marketplace in the near term and plans to reinvest part of the savings in the business.
Time to rename the company (Score:4, Insightful)
About Tree Fiddy-er
You'll never guess who the new CEO is.
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I won't even guess what this Fivver is, nevermind its CEO.
Re:Time to rename the company (Score:4, Interesting)
it's just a gig economy site where people can charge $5 (or more, or i guess less...?) for whatever service they're advertising
some of it is people who are memes and who profit off being memes, but it seems like the vast majority is people stealing graphic design templates.
Re:Time to rename the company (Score:5, Insightful)
Thanks, I see, so it is a company without a product that is truly representative of nothing at all.
I guess the conclusion about the impending job market doom is justified then.
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Thanks, I see, so it is a company without a product that is truly representative of nothing at all.
I guess the conclusion about the impending job market doom is justified then.
I kind of automatically assume that any company that can successfully replace a third of their workforce with AI is not doing anything meaningful. I mean, a company that does nothing but write crappy rehashed product reviews could pull it off, or a company that has no plans to innovate or grow could maybe do it by laying off all the sales/advertising people, but otherwise, it seems like a stretch.
So the question, then, is whether this company is genuinely circling the drain with nothing to lose or just has
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Why not both?
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Hello, fellow old-time slashdotter.
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As a Fiver (not Fiverr), gotta love the folk bragging on having (or losing) 6-digit accounts. Way to make me feel old.
The company had 762 employees as of December last year.
Given their "self-service" business model, why did Fiverr need 762 employees [macrotrends.net] to begin with?
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Wait, you lost your 6 digit account number how?
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I really wanted to have a clever comeback to express the idea of how hilarious it is you are getting downmodded by actual noobs. But I'm too tired so I'll just say it.
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fiverr is a good place to pay someone a bit for quick work.
It happens to map closely with the kind of tasks that generative ai is good at.
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it's just a gig economy site where people can charge $5 (or more, or i guess less...?) for whatever service they're advertising
some of it is people who are memes and who profit off being memes, but it seems like the vast majority is people stealing graphic design templates.
That's a small part of what they offer, the stealing graphic design templates part. They also steal music production templates and such. But you can hire artists, musicians, and some have-decent editors for written work, among other legitimate folks. But there's a ton of cruft to wade through to find those legitimate for-hires.
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From "Five(dollar)Error" to "AI-Error"
Delay Tactics (Score:1)
Think they'll manage to reduce costs enough to slightly delay the bubble burst?
They can fire a bunch of people but (Score:5, Insightful)
Inevitably they'll hire others to clean up the mess. And it's not going to make any of the AI providers turn a profit.
No experience of AI (Score:5, Insightful)
Let's start writing the next head line --- perhaps "Fiverr commits suicide by AI".
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The company knows what it is doing. The "journalist" have no clue
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ai is replacing the products people bought on fiverr
It sounds like a smart move. (Score:5, Funny)
By my calculations they stand to save $1250.
Every loser company now claims cuts are AI thing.. (Score:2)
... while actually they business suffers and they must do the cuts...
but if they name it AI-efficiency - then it is win-win...
they reduce the workforce and they can pretend to be very advanced in AI technology instead of losing business as it actually happens...
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I'm kinda suspecting this too
*rolls eyes* (Score:2)
.
impact of AI on Fiverr's business model (Score:2)
I would surmise that advancements in AI have also filled much of the demand for simple tasks that can be done for a fiver.
Re: impact of AI on Fiverr's business model (Score:2)
We really need FuckedCompany.com to come back (Score:2)
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I was just thinking this too lol
5er (Score:3)
I've used them (Score:2, Offtopic)
Seems to me like (Score:4, Insightful)
Bad JournaIlism Writing (Score:2)
I don't know why this post caught my ire; perhaps I've heard AI said just one too many times lately.
TFA does little more than edit a few claims from the company website. And this is from Reuters, supposed to be one of the remaining standards in journalism. I mean I guess the issue is noteworthy, but the headline should read "Fivvr *announces* it's intention to lay off and switch to AI."
No one doubts the layoffs are happening, everyone *should* be dubious of what it means for them to be using AI. A better ar
I doubt the replacement is just the staff (Score:3)
For those that don't know, Fiverr is a website that lets people offer services on small jobs for generally small amounts of money, some examples are design (graphic, circuits, CAD, etc.), music writing/production, programming, and writing.
I'm fairly sure that in addition to replacing the staff, they also plan to replace a majority of their freelancers with AI bots as well, so they can keep all the money rather than just their commission. Even if you want to hire a human, it will probably become difficult to find one, and Fiverr could just slightly undercut the price of any freelancer by putting up a very similar profile and just automate the detailed prompts into the AI.
Sure, anyone that gets crap from the AI won't come back, but since when has private equity given a shit about sustaining a business? They're just there to cut costs, take out a massive loan, send the money to the fund, and let the company and loan die in bankruptcy. Posturing that this is a positive is just to give plausible deniability that the bankruptcy wasn't intentional.
woah (Score:2)
the website whose name makes explicit that its purpose is to profit from the abject worthlessness of most labor shits on its workers
very shocking
A genuine shame (Score:1)
I've used Fiverr a lot through the years, it used to be great. Everything from logo designs to meme comics to beta reading books. But now I guess I can never use it again.
NYSE: FVRR communication (Score:2)
The transformation will also include streamlining internal systems, eliminating redundant processes, and adopting AI tools across all key operations. Fiverr plans to reinvest a portion of the savings to build a more scalable and performance-driven infrastructure. The remainder will boost Adjusted EBITDA, now expected to hit its 25% margin target by 2026—ahead of schedule.
Strategic Focus Shifts Toward AI-Native Infrastructure
The restructuring supports Fiverr’s strategic pivot to become a platform