TaskRabbit is scampering into five new towns today and announced that it’s far on track to gain 1.25 million new customers this year. The peer-to-peer marketplace for outsourcing obligations is now to be had in Atlanta, Dallas, Houston, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C. Spokesperson Johnny Brackett stated this expands its “geographical footprint,” employing 50 percent. Existing markets include Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York City, Seattle, the S.F. Bay location, Austin, Texas, and Portland, Ore.
The 5 new cities have over 2,000 new TaskRabbits, and TaskRabbit’s army is now 15,000 strong. These TaskRabbits carry out responsibilities and run errands for users, including constructing Ikea furnishings or choosing up your dry cleaning. The marketplace allows users to accomplish duties that they don’t have the time, motivation, knowledge, or assets to do on their very own and provide TaskRabbits with an additional circulate of profits.
TaskRabbit become based in 2008 through former IBM engineer Leah Busque. The tale goes she ran out of dog food on a cold February night time and didn’t have time to buy more before a dinner date together with her husband. She realized that a service that linked human beings in conditions like this would be extremely beneficial, and thus TaskRabbit become born. It has to see that grown right into a national phenomenon, and it’s one of the hallmark examples of the “sharing economic system.
The sharing economy takes advantage of the Internet to make use of underutilized assets. People who have to be had time, understanding, or belongings, including a vehicle or spare room, can position their property to paintings. Even five years in the past, the concept of letting a random man or woman on the Internet live in your private home or get in the car with you appeared loopy and doubtlessly dangerous. However, the rise of social networking and crowdsourced information adds in a layer of identity verification and accountability that enables human beings to consider each other.
TaskRabbit became one of the first companies to enter this sector. Building out a vibrant -sided marketplace is a task, particularly whilst services need to be had on-call. The organization has been steadily including in new markets and offerings over the past five years, helped along by way of $37.7 million in mission capital.
Since then, several competitors have cropped up, along with Postmates, Exec, TaskHero, and extra interest vendors like Zaarly. The recognition of these offerings represents larger traits going on right now within the tech global and beyond. With high prices of unemployment, humans are increasingly more looking for alternative methods to make money. Many of the TaskRabbits, Lyft drivers, or Airbnb hosts you meet are in-between jobs or the use of those offerings to make extra cash while they follow different hobbies, like faculty or a song profession. There has also been lots of dialogue about the following wave of the Internet, all approximately using offline interactions. Social media dominated the remaining decade, and now human beings are seeking online platforms to provide significant reviews inside the real-global.
Rachel Botsman wrote an e-book known as What’s Mine Is Yours: The Rise of Collaborative Consumption. She estimates that the purchaser peer-to-peer rental market becomes a $26 billion region and that the sharing financial system is a $one hundred ten billion marketplace. It is growing speedy as Internet penetration will increase around the arena, and those end up extra at ease with the idea of “disownership.” TaskRabbit won its initial traction in early adopter markets like San Francisco and New York but is now making it’s way deeper into the mainstream. The corporation has also made a massive push on cellular and is currently working on a revamp of the iOS app, a local Android app, and an app for TaskRabbits by using the give up of the 12 months.
