Youdo

YouDo.com— YouDo.com is a Russian online service that helps its clients find contractors for any of their domestic or other needs. The service can be accessed online through their website, or by using a phone app.
History
The online service was launched on 3 April 2012 in Moscow and the Moscow region. On March 4, 2013, the service was also launched in Saint-Petersburg. Initially users could publish tasks in only two categories: “Cleaning and domestic services” and “Courier services”. In over three years since its inception, YouDo.com has greatly expanded the number of categories, which is currently at 14. The categories include “Household repairs”, “Moving services”, “Virtual aide”, “Computer Help”, “Events and Promotions”, “Design”, “Web development”, “Photo and Video Services”, “Appliance Installation and Repairs”, “Beauty and Health”, “Digital Technology Repairs” and “Legal Help”.
Because of customer interest in some tasks that don't fall under any existing category, the company has decided to add “Tutoring”, “Help for Car Owners”, “Animal Care” and “Social Services” categories in the near future.
If a client's task does not fit under any existing category, it can still be published under “Something Else”.
YouDo.com's phone application was launched in the fall of 2012 and is available for iOS and Android. By the end of 2012, a third of all tasks on YouDo.com were created using the phone app.
At the end of February 2014 YouDo.com was in talks with Yandex (Russian IT company). However, at the end of 2014, Yandex' “Yandex.Master” project was shut down, as it was unable to attract and hold on to users. The contract with YouDo.com was never signed.
Service features
Service features are divided into two areas: for employers (clients) and employees (contractors).
Clients can publish tasks in 14 available categories, including “Courier Services”, “Cleaning/Household Help”, “Small Home Repairs”, “Computer Help”, “Virtual Aide” and others.
Tasks can be published using the online version or the phone application, available for iOS and Android.
Clients determine the cost of each task themselves, basing it on their personal financial ability and the price-list published on the website. A potential contractor can agree to that sum or make their own offer. In February 2013, a new option of cash payment for services rendered was introduced (before then, customers could only pay online through the YouDo.com service).
In July 2013 the service administrators fully turned off the option to render payment through the site.
In April 2013, a new option to create tasks without listing the cost was introduced. This option may be useful in cases where the client is having difficulty assessing the cost of the task. In this case, after the task is published, the client receives offers from potential contractors and chooses one of the specialists. After the job is complete, the client leaves a review of the specialist on the site. In early 2016, a new system of paid offers was implemented, the goal of which is to facilitate communications between client and employee.
Only verified users can reply to tasks on YouDo.com (their accounts are marked with a green check-mark on the site). Top-rated contractors receive SMS and push-notifications about new tasks that fit their profile, which create about 2500 tasks daily, and over 70000 verified potential contractors.
Contractors
All contractors who are allowed to reply to tasks undergo a screening process. From its very inception, the YouDo.com screening process included a questionnaire, an interview with a member of YouDo.com staff, and a document check by the company's security service. In the fall of 2013, the site switched to an online screening process for potential contractors, which includes a psychological test, a phone interview, and a background check of the information provided by the contractor in their profile. Today, the verification system works in much the same way, but instead of the psychological testing candidates are tested on the service's rules and regulations.
In January 2013, the number of contractors was at about 1000 people, today that number is over 70000. YouDo.com contractors have been hired to work at the biggest events in Moscow, such as the “Afisha” Picnic Festival, Russian Internet Week conference, “Bright People” festival, and many others.
Awards
On October 18, 2012, the project won its first award. YouDo.com won the “Golden Site” competition in the “Startup” nomination.
In early November 2012 YouDo.com was among the semi-finalists in the Forbes startup competition, and wrote a blog for seven months on the publication's website.
On November 21, 2012, YouDo.com won in the “Health, Entertainment and Leisure” nomination in the annual “RuNet Awards”.
In June 2013, YouDo.com won third place in the Forbes Startup competition.
It has also won the New Business Idea 2012 award and the “Battle of Mobile Startups” from Nomobile, which took place at the RIW-2012 conference.
In December 2012, YouDo.com was listed in the Top-50 Russian Startups according to PricewaterhouseCoopers and Digital October with the highest rating in investment potential.
In 2012, YouDo.com was selected for participation by Microsoft Startup Accelerator and BizSpark.
On March 14, 2013, YouDo.com received a grant from the Start Fellows project.
Business model
From its inception until February 2013, YouDo.com charged 10% commission for each task. In February 2013, the commission for tasks paid for online was lowered to 4%. Users were now able to pay for tasks in cash. Until the end of 2015, YouDo.com charged contractors 5% to 15% commission depending on the cost of the task: the higher the cost, the lower the commission. In January 2016 YouDo.com moved all contractors to a new system - paid offers, where contractors pay for each offer they make, but no commission is charged for a completed task.
Aside from the C2C segment, YouDo.com also earned capital on a number of solutions for corporate clients. At the end of 2012, VTB Bank had used YouDo.com's technologies to launch an ad campaign, in which users could place a task for free on YouDo.com.
Among YouDo.com's clients are such companies as QIWI, BoConcept, Philips, Digital October center and others. By the end of 2015, the task marketplace value on YouDo.com was 1.6 billion rubles.
Investments
On October 2, 2013, YouDo.com representatives announces that they have secured investment from Flint Capital investment fund in the amount of 1 million US dollars.
In the spring of 2014, YouDo.com received an investment offer from Yandex, which wanted to launch a similar service back in 2013. In September 2014, when Yandex.Master was launched, Yandex and YouDo.com worked in partnership for three months, with YouDo.com giving some of Yandex.Master orders to their contractors. Both sides had agreed that Yandex would buy into the company and get a 100% consolidation option for three years. However, the deal was never signed and eventually fell through.
The second investment round was completed by the end of 2014. It included UCP foundation, Sergey Solonin (CEO Qiwi), Flint Capital Fund that had already invested $1 million, and Alexey Gidirim.
Household services market in Moscow
According to YouDo.com data, in 2012, 75% of Muscovites have used household services, with 4.2 million active users. 58% of users order between one and three services per month, 13% - over 10 services.
In 2015, the amount of users had grown significantly. The number of contractors had increased by 3.5 times, and the number of clients - three times. The unstable economic situation has affected the population's earnings and people began looking for ways to make money in their free time. The growth in the number of clients is due to the fact that consumers are not ready to give up on their service habits, but have become more frugal and choosy. Aggregator services such as YouDo.com help them find the best deals on household services.
YouDo.com company research
YouDo.com conducts annual research among users. In 2013, the average age of contractors was between 18 and 25 (45.5%), however, that number changed in 2015 - currently 45.3% of contractors are between 25 and 34. The household freelance services market is “aging” and moving further away from the traditional stereotype of the “part-time student” job.
The trend for older contractors also affects the education level of available workers-for-hire. If in 2013, only 24% of contractors registered on the site had a higher education, in 2015 that number have increased by more than two times and reached 50.1%. The number of men had also increased from 68.5% to 79.9%. The average cost of a service had increased from 1500 rubles (2013) to 2500 rubles in 2015.
Today, a YouDo.com contractor spends 25 hours a week on average telecommuting (based on data that shows that 33.3% work under 25 hours and 31.3% - between 25 and 40 hours). Two years ago, the average time spent on self-employment activities was 28 hours.
This number is interesting as it reflects the fact that today, most contractors already have a stable job, which is reflected in the data (44.1% of YouDo.com freelances have one or more stable jobs, and over half of the respondents - 52.7% - describe themselves as employed specialists or business owners).

Main Menu

See Also

Main Menu