I would like to think this change will mean that some of my jobs would fall under the 10% figure for fees, however, there's the obvious likelihood that this will be used to push fees over the current 10% on average - this seems to be how Upwork thinks, whilst talking a lot about creating a 'healthy marketplace'.
It would be healthier if smaller jobs could be done on under the 10% rate; that would be give me more confidence in buying connects and bidding for those jobs, where I have created re-usable solutions that can really help out smaller companies.
But if they're going to decide that there is more supply than demand here (without knowing the first thing about the work, as is standard for middlemen), then I could expect Upwork to actually increase their fees on these types of jobs.
Better way for Upwork to introduce this would be primarily to weight smaller jobs = lower fees, bigger jobs = higher fees. And rework the platform to encourage invites for serious freelancers to work serious projects for serious clients.
I never minded paying the 20% when the above kind of work & clients just landed in my lap. I was way better off than under the current incarnation of the platform.
So we'll have to see how this plays out; will this mark something of a return to the good old days (as set out above), or will this be used to invisibly scoop up more from freelancers via the long tail of the marketplace?
I guess we'll know in a month or so.
