The digital transformation of the workplace has only just begun. The notion that you have to move to Silicon valley to get employed by one of the world-class organizations is just not the case anymore.
Platforms like Fiverr and Upwork give freelancers the possibility to advertise their services to millions of customers remotely. That offers an excellent opportunity for people who want to travel around the world and still want to earn money.
Remote freelancing allows people from third-world countries to easily participate in the western world markets without leaving their homes. Remote freelancing from a third-world country allows freelancers to improve their lifestyle. This will also lead to economic growth in these third-world countries, especially in areas with high unemployment rates.
While businesses compete for local talents, remote freelancers give smaller startups a larger talent pool to choose from. Instead of hiring a graphic designer in the west, startups gain access to a far broader and deeper talent pool with these freelancer platforms than those who limit themselves to one geographic area. And for managers, organizing and coordinating a remote team’s work is crucial to winning recognition and advancement in the coming years.
So what will change in the future? I think that the prices for services that can be done remotely will drop, and they will be more and more outsourced in third-world countries. People who can do their work remotely may move to nicer places and do not need to live where their employer is located. This could have a quite interesting effect in, for example, Europe. Nowadays, low-wage countries move to North-European countries to earn more money while North-European citizens move to South-European to enjoy a friendlier climate.
