They are losing money and have always been. They are spending a ridiculous amount of money to bring in clients through ads and other marketing channels, and the whole thing simply doesn't look too sustainable.
Ah, I did not know that. It looks like a goldmine considering the amounts that streams in. But yeah, if they spend a lot on acquisition; that goes very fast.
This seems to be happening due to the nature of the freelance work itself. It simply can't work at scale in a win-win fashion: if you want to attract immense volume of clients the way Upwork does, you are inevitably looking for those who don't know what they are doing, and are lured by advertisement. And that's pricey. I've been there for 15 years and made millions; i believe whole freelancing thing exists simply due to the systematic fallacy.
