The increased fastness and rush of modern life forced us to accelerate too. Today we're always in a hurry, we're constantly busy. As a result, many of us don't have enough time to complete simple everyday tasks, including cleaning, ironing, standing in line, performing minor repairs, and so on. And sometimes we just don't have certain skills to solve our domestic problems. That’s when marketplaces like TaskRabbit, the so-called local task platforms, come to the rescue.
Taskrabbit belongs to the top resources offering household services. It's incredibly popular in the US and parts of Europe, and its fame keeps growing.
Do you want to know more about this market leader? Then take your time and read our article. We're going to tell you a lot of interesting and useful things: among others, we'll explain to you which features should be included in the clone of the TaskRabbit website (in case you decide to create one!).
The need in peer to peer marketplace software
To better understand the essence of the marketplaces like TaskRabbit, let's start with the concept of the sharing economics they’re based on.
Sharing Economics
Peer-to-peer marketplace software is a prime example of the sharing economy.
These platforms are referring to the idea that people can and should mutually benefit from products and services they're willing to share with each other. Imagine: you have a thing (product) you don't need but you know it might be useful to another person... why not exchange it for something else (like money)? The same applies to the provision of services. If you want a certain result (let's say a hole in the wall to hang a painting), you don't have to buy a drill. You may resort to someone who already has such a drill and who doesn't mind helping you with your painting (of course, you should pay him afterward but there's no free lunch in our world, as the saying goes!). Doesn’t it sound perfect?
And most of all, you don't need to contact any intermediaries to get the desired! Today people have a chance to share products and services with each other without the involvement of third parties, be it a supplier of goods, a financial institution, etc. It's an ideal win-win deal, don't you see?
Actually, this is the basic concept of the sharing economy, which can be safely called the most actively developing business trend today. Investors have put up over $23 billion in sharing startups since 2010 (TaskRabbit, our task marketplace platform, is only one of a myriad of instances of the sort)
The popularity of this trend is proven by statistics: according to a McKinsey study, in the United States and Europe, more than 30% of the entire workforce is employed in the sharing economy. And as PwC claims, the global sharing economy will have grown to $335 billion by 2025 (compare it with the 2017 figure, which stood at $18.2 billion).
Of course, the key areas of the sharing model are recruiting, transportation, traveling, streaming, and finance. However, recently the list has been supplemented by household services. Let's talk in more detail?
What about task marketplace platforms?
According to statistics, the demand for household services is growing by 25-30% annually, and therefore various local task platforms are gaining popularity around the world. Just take a look: the hero of our article, TaskRabbit, received more than $37 million in investments, its competitor Thumbtack - more than $273 million, and Gigwalk, a crowdsourcing platform close to them in concept, - about $18 million. It's really impressive, right?
Benefits of P2P marketplaces like TaskRabbit
-
Saving on infrastructure. You can perfectly do without equipment and inventory, you're just a mediator helping users in need of household services find taskers who, in turn, want to get a simple low-skilled job. That's the beauty of peer-to-peer marketplace software!
-
Scalability. The first benefit leads to this one since not having your own inventory means the business is easier to scale. You’re able to develop and evolve your resource the way you want!
-
Network effect. If you manage to create a clone of the TaskRabbit website, a network effect will work sooner or later, and you’ll be able to save on advertising: users will promote your platform themselves by talking it up to each other.
-
The barrier to entry. The network effect mentioned above gives you another advantage too: once the marketplace reaches a certain level of popularity, new players find it very difficult to enter the market. It means you reduce the risk of increased competition in the future.
-
Flexibility. Summing up, we can say that marketplaces like TaskRabbit are more flexible and easier to adapt to your project needs.
It’s time to take a closer look at TaskRabbit to figure out if it's worth your time and attention.
TaskRabbit: marketplace for taskers
As you already understood, TaskRabbit is a web service bringing together a variety of experts (taskers) and people who need their services. A good example: your home has a breakdown, and you yourself don't have the required skills to repair it. Using the TaskRabbit platform, you can easily find a proper specialist (craftsman) to fix the problem.
In fact, the service resembles Uber, with one basic difference: instead of hiring drivers, users employ workers to perform certain household tasks.
Thus, TaskRabbit connects busy people having numerous unresolved issues and unfulfilled tasks with professionals who're ready to come to the rescue at once.
7 facts about TaskRabbit:
-
TaskRabbit was launched in 2008 by Leah Busque.
-
Leah Busque came up with the TaskRabbit idea when she realized she didn't have time to buy dog food to feed her four-legged pet. "It would be nice to find someone to help me with this!" - the woman thought... and initiated the creation of a new website, the special marketplace for taskers.
-
The company is headquartered in San Francisco.
-
In early autumn 2017, IKEA Group announced its intention to become the owner of TaskRabbit by purchasing 100% of the company's shares. A year later, in 2018, the cooperation of the IKEA Group with the platform it acquired became closer: IKEA Group began to offer TaskRabbit users its furniture assembly service.
-
Now the service operates in more than 50 cities around the world. 47 of them are located in the USA, the rest are in the UK (4) and Canada (so far only 1). The platform is being actively used by over 140 thousand taskers.
-
Taskers are being paid by the hour (or by the price per task).
-
Surely, TaskRabbit isn't a charity project, and the owners of the local task platform charge a certain percentage fee (money is being added to the invoice issued to the user).
The target audience of TaskRabbit:
-
Users who have no time or desire (or both) to perform certain household work themselves. They set the amount of money they're willing to pay and use the search engine of the TaskRabbit system to find a specialist who agrees to cooperate on the specified conditions. By the way, the TaskRabbit platform offers the possibility to register a special business account and work with the taskers database even better (mainly due to a larger number of available filters).
-
Taskers (users who're offering their household services of some sort). They must fill out a special form on the TaskRabbit platform and report their professional skills. In addition, each tasker pays a non-refundable registration fee. After completing these simple steps, the tasker gets full access to all the cool marketplace website features. In particular, he starts receiving notifications on the appearance of suitable job offers.
Household services: main examples
If you're serious about starting a clone of the TaskRabbit website, you have to pay attention to one more important subject. What kind of household services does your inspirer offer? The list commands the respect:
-
Simple errands. No special qualifications are required since we're talking about elementary tasks: picking up clothes from dry cleaning, getting prescription medicine, going to grocery stores, and so on. Students are especially happy to take on such work: after all, they're full of juice and strength and have a lot of free time. Why not spend it to earn some extra money?
-
Waiting in queues. Sometimes we have to wait for hours to receive what we want: say, in the USA, in the most popular restaurants (chiefly those that have just been opened), customers sometimes have to stand in a huge queue to get inside the establishment and take a table. However, if you don't have time, a good way out is to pay the tasker so that he would wait in a long line, and you'll come when you're ready.
-
Delivery. Delivery of goods of any kind is one of the most demanded tasks on marketplaces like TaskRabbit.
-
Decorating & Home improvement. Also, platform users often hire taskers when they need assistance with home improvement or decoration of the room to make it look perfect on the day of the celebration, be it a wedding or a party.
-
Moving is another task that you cannot handle without aid. And if you don't have friends and relatives ready to help you with the move, then Taskrabbit would be a good solution to the problem.
-
Cleaning. Few people love cleaning, and if you’re not one of them, you won’t mind using a task marketplace platform to find somebody willing to take on such boring domestic work instead of you.
-
Heavy lifting. People who would like to play the part of baggage handlers and loaders can be hired on the Taskrabbit platform too.
-
Helping at the party. Taskers are ready to work as bartenders, waiters or even butlers (whose job is to welcome guests) at any home party.
-
Furniture assembling. Need to assemble furniture but don't know where to start? The local service marketplace will help you find taskers with the necessary skills.
-
And more: laundry, packing, walking with pets, clothing repair, yard work, carpentry, window cleaning, painting, etc.
BTW!
While Taskrabbit and other similar local task platforms focus on household services, experts to perform other types of tasks can also be found there (such as web design, usability testing, computer help, online sales, marketing, photography, and so on).
Why is Taskrabbit so good?
Let's briefly list the advantages you’ll get by using the TaskRabbit platform:
-
Affordability. People with different financial means can become users of Taskrabbit.
-
Checking the reliability of taskers. Each tasker goes through security checks needed to make sure he or she is safe to work with.
-
Transparent pricing. You know exactly what you are paying for.
-
Insurance system. The Taskrabbit company insures each task for approximately $ 1,000,000.
-
Post-paid service. Payment takes place only after the task has been successfully completed.
What to consider to create a successful marketplace for taskers?
If you remember, we've mentioned above the barrier of entry and called it an advantage of p2p websites. But if we're talking about a new market player, then the advantage turns into an obstacle. The more competitors you have, the fewer chances you get to take your place among the top task marketplace platforms.
“What about TaskRabbit? - you may ask. - Why did Leah Busque manage to achieve her goal? What was her secret?"
The answer is simple: Thumbtack was the only service that competed with TaskRabbit when Leah Busque started her project. Now it's quite another matter, and the market is full of marketplaces like TaskRabbit.
So rule number one: “An analog of TaskRabbit has a better chance of surviving on the market of a country where there are no similar web solutions yet”.
However, rule # 1 isn’t enough; there are also other success conditions, namely:
-
Human labor resources. There must be people who are ready to be taskers and perform low-skilled cheap work.
-
Customers. On the other hand, busy people with middle and high incomes should also live in your chosen location: say, businessmen who could potentially need local task platforms.
-
Infrastructure. And, finally, your city must have appropriate conditions (well-developed infrastructure). After all, if there isn’t a single takeout restaurant nearby, there can be no question of the delivery of your favorite dish. And if there is no lawn around your house, you don't need a tasker to cut it. Alas, in some countries of Asia, Africa, Latin America, and even Eastern Europe, infrastructure may be a real problem (however, the situation is gradually improving).
All right, we've figured out how to improve the chances of your web service's success. And the next question is: what features should your TaskRabbit have?
Taskrabbit marketplace website features
We're not discussing features of the Task Marketplace Script in this blog post (it's too early to deal with development issues yet). Today we're going to talk about the practical functionality of the program as such.
Ideally, your platform should provide three types of access:
-
Client access. It’s about features focused on helping people find taskers in order to perform a particular job they need to be done.
-
Taskers' access. Also, you have to provide users who offer their services with functionality allowing them to be as efficient as possible while performing their duties.
-
Admin access (with more options). Here we’re talking about features aimed at controlling the whole process and managing user accounts, payments, refunding, etc, as well as responding to possible complaints.
But these are just vague generalities, you must agree. Surely, you want to get more specifics. And we're ready to provide it by giving you detailed information on must-have marketplace website features.
Alas, it all depends on your financial capabilities. And if your budget is tight, then the smartest thing to do is to start with the MVP model and add the most important features first. They are few (only 7), but they're crucial for the effective operation of the entire project. In the future, you'll have a chance to improve your service at will.
Here is a list of basic features your task marketplace platform won't be able to do without:
-
Check-in. Registration is a mandatory feature for any application and site (it is sometimes optional, but there is always a possibility to register). In your case, taskers need registration in order to be able to join your program for finding and providing household services. Keep in mind, however, that you cannot afford the luxury of simple, one-step user registration. You should definitely check each account, and your future user has to verify his identity (he's going to offer his services and receive payment, and any monetary relationship is a too delicate matter to abandon a security stage; marketplaces like TaskRabbit always require a high level of protection). There are many ways to check a user's account, from email verification to sending SMS to his phone number, pick the one you like most.
-
User profile. Okay, a potential tasker has registered on your site. Now he has to fill in his profile with personal information. He must enter data about himself and his professional capabilities: full name, contact information, the nature of the services provided, a link to an example of his work (if possible), the price of services (his rate), and so on. Also, you, as the owner of the clone of the TaskRabbit website, should remember that the profile of every tasker must contain such information as his rating, reviews of other users, etc. (of course, this data will appear later)
-
Search by specified criteria & Matching system. The next feature in TaskRabbit Clone is the filter-based search for taskers. To be precise, the client resorts to the search engine to find a user (tasker) who best matches his requirements. He may specify the price range, the desired location, details of the upcoming work (say, how many rooms to decorate, if it comes to helping with planning a party), and so on. Then the matching system offers him suitable taskers, taking into account all the above parameters, and shows a list of available experts. And, of course, you’re allowed to visit and study the pages of the candidates you like.
-
Job description. It's good that everyone can take advantage of the search and matching systems of your local task platform to find taskers but the sharing (peer-to-peer) model implies mutuality. It means any ordering user must be able to post a description of the work to be done. Simplify this process by offering him to fill out a simple form with the following fields: service category, short description, location, required specialists, and so on.
-
Text, audio, and video messaging. Surely, the client and the tasker must be able to converse and discuss the details of the future work. So supplement your web resource with an online chat (preferably with the possibility of audio and video communication).
-
Payment system. Of course, your web service won’t do without an embedded payment gateway needed to allow taskers to receive money for the work done. And be sure to take necessary measures to protect user data so that your site visitors can transfer money in a safe manner. In our previous articles, we've written a lot about implementing secure payment gateways and providing highly protected money transactions, so let's not repeat the whole thing all again. Follow the link if interested in more details.
-
Reviews. Our list of must-have marketplace website features ends with Reviews. Naturally, it'd also be nice to add a rating system, but reviews alone will be just enough too. Such a feature will help users share their own experience of interacting with a particular tasker (or customer) and thereby reduce the risk of unpleasant situations.
