There are several youth freelancers in Sri Lanka registered with multiple platforms selling their skills to the world and the revenue generated through them annually to Sri Lanka is in the excess of US$ 18.7 million.
Currently there are over 17,000 to 22,000 youth in the average between 20 to 28 years who are engaged in this sector.Fiverr, Freelancer and Upwork are the popular platforms used by Sri Lankan youth with Fiverr having the most number of registered workers, LIRNEasia Senior Research Manager Suthaharan Perampalam said. Speaking at an event in Colombo yesterday he said freelance “jobs” that are outsourced through platforms include graphic design, data entry, proofreading, translation, copy editing, market research, programming and data verification. He said this segment is witnessing a 44% year on year growth.Perampalam said that these Freelancers in addition to earning valuable pocket money ranging from around US$140 per month also mature to become entrepreneurs.
“Due to global competition they also improve their skills.”
However this segment faces social stigma since their working hours are still around 3 a.m. and they wake up around 10a.m. in addition they don’t have a salary slip which makes difficult for this segment to obtain credit. Due to lack of awareness about how the freelance payment system works, few workers interviewed in the LIRNEasia study who had done some work were unable to receive payment because PayPal inward remittances were not allowed in Sri Lanka. (SS)
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