Filipino Entrepreneurs Can Now Tap into a Global Marketplace for Jobs Online

MANILA, Philippines, Aug. 8, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Freelancer.com, the world's number one website for outsourcing, today officially launched a dedicated regional website at www.freelancer.ph supporting small business owners, freelancers and entrepreneurs in the Philippines.

According to 2009 statistics from the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA), more than 8 million overseas Filipinos are working abroad — the top ten employment destinations namely the US, Saudi Arabia, Canada, UAE, Australia, Malaysia, Japan, UK, Hong Kong and Singapore.

But while the government unceasingly recognizes the heroism of these individuals who contribute largely to the Philippines' economic growth, there are also some Filipinos who choose to stay in the Philippines to establish their own businesses.  As of 2009, there are 780,437 business enterprises operating in the Philippines — and 99.6% (777,357) of these are micro-, small-, and medium-scale enterprises, or SMEs. These SMEs are touted as the backbone of the Philippine economy, with their businesses playing an indispensable role in boosting the country's economic development.

Many of these businesses need to hire specific skill sets from time to time, and many more are service organizations that need to source clients and business. They can now do so easily online by tapping into www.freelancer.com where to date over 1.1 million jobs have been outsourced.

The World Working For the Filipino

Matt Barrie, the chief executive of Freelancer.com, the world's largest online outsourcing marketplace, believes that there is a huge opportunity for Filipino SMEs, thanks to increasing globalization and the rapid adoption of the Internet in this country. The award-winning entrepreneur, technologist and lecturer, who holds a Masters degree in Engineering from Stanford University, believes one of the best solutions for Filipino entrepreneurs is by tapping into a global online jobs marketplace.

"The opportunity for Filipino entrepreneurs is booming online! Filipinos are already the fifth largest population on Freelancer.com, and the third largest freelancer community, and growing at a tremendous rate. Whether you have an idea to start a business and need to hire someone to help turn it into reality, or you're an entrepreneur wanting to start a service business working as a freelancer online, there's a huge opportunity," he said.

The Philippine has the third largest Internet penetration in Asia Pacific and has been growing exponentially, increasing from 8 million users online to 30 million from 2009 to 2010. On top of this, social networking penetration is among the highest in the world, for example it is estimated that about 25 million of these online users have Facebook accounts.

SMEs in the Philippines can now connect with over 2.7 million verified professionals to get a variety of jobs done that don't require hiring fulltime. Freelancers from over 400 different industries can be hired, starting at PhP1,200.00, and an average around PhP8,000. Apart from assisting employers, this online marketplace can also help Filipinos find alternative sources of income apart from their day jobs by working as freelancers or building service providing companies. The top freelancers on Freelancer.com are today making around US$1 million a year and already around 1.1 million jobs have been provided through the site to freelancers globally.

Freelancer.ph today offers transactions in Philippine Pesos; and, over time, would offer a range of local support and featured. The site already has over 100,000 registered Filipino users. The launch of Freelancer.ph will encourage more Filipinos to sign up and connect with the site's growing international marketplace.

"As we increasingly localize www.freelancer.ph to suit the demands of Filipino SMEs and freelancers, there will be more and more opportunity build great businesses by going online," said Mr. Barrie.

About Freelancer

Webby award-winning Freelancer.com is the largest outsourcing marketplace in the world. Through Freelancer.com, businesses connect with independent service providers and freelancers. Freelancer.com connects over 2.7 million professionals from all over the world. Through our website, employers can hire freelancers to do work in areas such as software, writing, data entry and design right through to engineering and the sciences, sales & marketing and accounting & legal services. Jobs start from 1200 PHP, making Freelancer.com extremely cost effective for small businesses, which often need a wide variety of jobs to be done, but cannot justify the expense of hiring full time.

SOURCE Freelancer.com