IT firm to set up 'gig' discovery site

A LOCAL startup is working on a platform that will help netizens discover "gigs" or micro-jobs online.

Dubbed TheGigland.com, the project is a job matchmaking website that connects buyers and sellers of small, specific jobs, from walking a pet to proofreading an essay to designing a logo, among others.

"The concept of TheGigland.com is somewhat similar to our flagship product Socialdeal. For Socialdeal we bridge the gap between online buyers and merchants. For Gigland, we also bridge the gap between two parties, sellers and buyers. But its between sellers who's willing to do a gig at a very small price, and buyers who are willing to pay for a small gigs," said Hiro Tien (pic) of Socialbuzz Advertising.

With a denomination of as low as $5, he said, users of the service can either hire or provide micro jobs from various categories like advertising, writing, programming, business, music and audio, graphics.

Tien said he came up with the project to encourage more netizens to earn money online.

"There are a lot of people nowadays on the Internet, on social media, that has too much time on the computer itself and not actually monetising it. I don't see why not? Everyone has a skill, some people can write, draw, sing, photoshop, take good photos, so I want to give them the opportunity to earn something out of these skills," he said.

"Say for example, you are good in English, and maybe you want to find a way to monetise from your skill, so can register on Gigland for free and post a gig saying, 'I will proofread your essay or writing for $10 for 1,000 words'. Or if you're good in graphic design, you can post a gig, 'I will design three logos for your company for $5', he added.

He said that gigs will be ranked by popularity based on customer reviews, and that the good ones will get noticed from buyers from around the world.

According to Tien, the service uses geolocation mapping technology as its innovation to differentiate itself from the rest of the available similar services in the market.

"This is a global project, and regardless of where the users reside, the gigs can be both geographical and non-geographical," he said.

In addition, he said, user reviews, hits and buyers feedbacks will boost their credentials in a worldwide scale.

The project won third place in the New Media and Entertainment Category at the recent Brunei ICT Awards last month, and will make its appearance once again at the upcoming Asia Pacific ICT Awards (APICTA) in November.

Tien said that the project is still in the prototype stage and he hopes to release it after APICTA.

"This is something that's going to come out next from us in the next future. For socialdeals its mainly local, but our direction with TheGigland.com is that this is how we plan to go global," he said.

The Brunei Times