Fiverr, the multinational online freelance marketplace, has announced plans to critically downsize its staff and employ more artificial intelligence, CEO Micha Kaufman announced in a company update, which includes a letter to employees.
Kaufman shared the letter with his staff on Sept. 15, announcing that the company is laying off 250 employees as part of a “painful reset” and a pursuit to become an “AI-first company.” The number of employees accounts for nearly 30 percent of its workforce, as reported by The Wall Street Journal.
The goal of the downsizing is to make the platform “leaner, faster, with a modern AI-focused tech infrastructure, a smaller team, each with substantially greater productivity, and far fewer management layers,” according to the chief executive.
Kaufman added that the layoffs will not harm freelancers on the platform.
“Business on Fiverr won’t be impacted in any way throughout this transformation,” he said. “Our commitment to empowering you and democratizing access to opportunities remains steadfast.”
What is Fiverr?
Fiverr was created in 2010 by Kaufman and Shai Wininger as a platform for people to “buy and sell digital services in the same fashion as physical goods on an e-commerce platform,” according to the company’s website.
Graphic design, video editing and proofreading were some popular early offerings of the platform and were initially priced at a flat rate of $5. Eventually, the site expanded its service categories and allowed freelancers to sell their services for different rates.
The company has evolved since its launch over a decade ago and now boasts 3.5 million active buyers from over 160 countries and over 700 service categories, according to Backlinko.
In a July earnings press release, Fiverr announced that its second-quarter revenue was up nearly 15 percent compared to the second quarter of 2024, partially driven by what it calls a “surging demand” for services related to AI.
Fiverr warned of AI takeover
Kaufman’s recent announcement comes on the heels of a company-wide email that he sent in May.
“AI is coming for your jobs,” he wrote at the time. “Heck, it’s coming for my job too. This is a wake-up call.”
In 2024, the company put out a controversial ad campaign claiming that “nobody cares” if work is done by a person or AI.
