Freelancer flags earnings ‘inflection point’

The listed creative platform has flagged an ‘inflection point’ as it sharply narrowed its first-half loss.

ASX-listed Australian creative platform Freelancer (FLN) has flagged an earnings “inflection point” as it posted a 56 per cent increase in first-half revenue, while sharply narrowing its after-tax loss.

The company is yet to turn a profit, but has shrunk its net loss to $778,000, down from $1.3 million in the previous corresponding half.

Meanwhile, revenue grew to $26.2 million on the back of an increased user base and the integration of Escrow.com.

CEO Matt Barrie said the company’s growth was accelerating and is at an inflection point in terms of profitability.

“Our mission statement is to change lives and were pleased to have changed millions of freelancers’ lives around the world as we present them with the opportunity to generate income in technical jobs, which may not be available to them locally, through use of our marketplace and a laptop computer or desktop,” he said.

“Freelancer is continuing its exceptional growth, with record net revenue, gross volumes, registered users, and posted projects in the first half of 2016.”

Mr Barrie said the company had seen healthy revenues from its acquisition of online payment intermediary Escrow.com, with transactions totalling $US3 billion since the deal was completed.

This was the first half-year result to count results from Escrow.com, which itself now has 1 million users.

Freelancer had passed the 20 million user mark for the first time since its inception in 2009, with more than 2 million registering this year. It now has users in 247 countries, Mr Barrie added.

He said the company had a “unique exposure to a deflationary environment”, given more than 95 per cent of the company’s revenue comes from outside Australia.

The platform has 9 million jobs listed as of last month, with 1.4 million posted this year alone.

The countries which user Freelancer.com the most are India, the United States, Philippines, Pakistan, and the United Kingdom, while top job categories are Website, IT and Software; Design, Media and Architecture; and Writing and Content.

Mr Barrie has previously been highly critical of Australia’s technology policies, writing a blog post in April describing our technology ecosystem as being in “absolute crisis.”

“If there is one thing, and one thing only that you do to fix this industry, it’s get more people into it,” he said.

“To me, the most important thing Australia absolutely has to do is build a world class technology curriculum in our K-12 system. Instead we lump in a couple of horrendous subjects about technology in with woodwork and home economics. Yes there is a little bit of change coming, but it’s mostly lip service.”