Table of Contents:

eLance

www.eLance.com

They operate 2 different parts of their business:

(1) the public website

is used by small business looking for: graphic design, computer programming, webdevelopment, and other services such as marketing, writing, and consulting

Revenue from the public website accounts for approx $20 million = less than 1% of revenue

Question - if this part of their business were a stand-alone business, would it be profitable? What does it cost to set up and run this website? How much % wise of each transaction does eLance make? Or, do they just make money from subscriptions to the service?

'

(2) the larger business

that is behind the scenes, where they sell their software and service to big companies who are looking for outsourced labor (mostly in India). This is sometimes called Services Procurement and Management (SPM) solutions.

Service providers include: Accenture, BearingPoint, Cognizant, Deloitte, Infosys, IBM, Keane, Oracle, Tata and Wipro. - selling services for contract labor across functions including accounting, administration, call-center, engineering,facilities, healthcare, IT, legal, marketing, manufacturing and operations.

Customers include: ABN AMRO, Charles Schwab, FedEx, Motorola, and Texas Instruments, American Express, BP, EDS, GE, Novartis, Northwestern Mutual, Procter & Gamble, Qwest and others.

Revenue from this area is estimated at $5-$6 billion annually

estimated profits are difficult to come by, but an article from dow jones said "In 2006, Click Commerce expects the acquired Elance business to recognize about $7.5 million in recurring revenue from its customers purchasing maintenance, hosting and services.". Does this mean that elance makes profit of $7.5 million per year? need more research...

For background info, please read: