2012 Online Outsourcing Predictions

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Here we are again, at the end of what has been another interesting year in the field of online outsourcing. We predicted that online outsourcing would increase in our 2010 End-of-Year Analysis article, and we were right! Online outsourcing increased 89.82% according to vWorker’s Pay-for-time Billable Hours. And while we don’t dare to make any bold predictions regarding 2012, we have a strong hunch this growth will continue, but with an inclination towards four very interesting trends…

Trend #1: Insourcing (or Onshoring)

America’s going through a tough wake-up call at the moment. The recession, though improving, hasn’t retreated in any significant way — forcing those who expected the country to ‘tough it out’ to recognize its trickle-up effect on small businesses, major corporations, and a few sectors of the coveted 1% as well.

Warren Buffet, America’s second-wealthiest man; Leon Cooperman, billionaire investment adviser; and Jamie Dimo, JP Morgan Chase chief executive, answered the call and acknowledged their role in this country’s economic stability. But that stability isn’t being met in an immediate, profitable way right now. So we believe economic impatience will drive employment opportunities (even temporary, online employment opportunities) back to the U.S. in a noticeable way.

Trend #2: Real Originality

Google’s Panda program sent shock waves across the content industry and had webmasters scrambling for a life ring. Major players, such as DaniWeb, made a noteworthy comeback. But the impact has yet to hit home for some folks. So we suspect syndicated and duplicate content issues, those pesky little details in Google’s demonic Webmaster Guidelines, will force the stubborn and reluctant to purchase material that’s consistent with the company’s revised demands.

Trend #3: Web Development

Web development already carved a permanent groove within the programming community, however, we suspect that groove will deepen, widen, and thus completely drown out desktop development, often built with C# and Visual Basic type programming languages. In fact, according to vWorker’s Most Popular Categories of Work, PHP, JavaScript, ASP.NET, Java, and XML/XLS were among the top earning programming languages for the entire year. COBOL, Delphi, Matlab, Postscript, and Visual FoxPro were among the lowest earning languages, while almost all web programming languages increased in earnings.

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We additionally suspect the Android operating system will eventually dominate Apple’s iOS in both market share and outsourcing projects — largely due to its low cost, accessibility, and unrelenting television commercials!

Trend #4: Reputation Management

Social media made a big splash a few years back, which consequently, brought up some interesting privacy challenges. Both Facebook and Twitter, for example, underwent ferocious scrutiny unlike anything we’ve ever seen in our 16+ year online existence. And as you might imagine, the war between sharing sites and privacy advocates isn’t over yet… not by a long shot.

Earlier this December, for instance, a California judge ruled to permit lawsuits against Facebook from those who claim “showing advertisements that their friends apparently like violates a California law regarding commercial endorsements.” Two weeks earlier than that, Tony La Russa, St. Louis Cardinals baseball coach, sued Twitter “because someone had faked an account under his name.”

See what others predict for online outsourcing in 2012 here.

These types of lawsuits aren’t going to stop, but the sanctimonious sharing that exploded the industry into being isn’t going to stop either. People will continue to tweet, share, like, +1, and whatever else it is that they do at these types of websites even at the risk of relinquishing some form of privacy.

Between these opposing behaviors is where we envision an increase in reputation management opportunities – all designed to clean up regrettable sharing, and/or publically resolve embarrassing consumer complaints.

What Do You Think?

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External Resources:

1. Android Market Hits 450K Apps, Challengers Abound