In a time when more people are considering permanently working from home amid all the traditional employment constraints, a 12-year-old freelance writing portal in the Philippines has announced its upcoming closure. Scribbloo, formerly known as Essays.ph, is bidding goodbye to its freelance writers.
In a statement within the portal (posted on March 27), Scribbloo Chief Paul Agabin cited three primary factors for the decision: industry competition, oversaturation, and pricing. “More and more clients are asking for quality, but demands lower prices,” he said. “As such, we can no longer continue and we’ll temporarily cease our operations by May 1, 2020.”
Agabin advises its writers to withdraw all their remaining funds in the portal by end of day of April 30, 2020, before access to the forum account is permanently barred.
However, the announcement is not all sad news after all. Agabin also announced the rollout of a new freelance writing marketplace called yonipp on May 1, 2020. The new website is currently in beta mode, but Agabin assured that new projects will be seeded by the time it is launched.
Essays.ph renamed itself as Scribbloo in 2019. In its website, Scribbloo describes itself as a content outsourcing portal. “Our goal is to provide jobs for our fellow Filipinos in the most convenient way possible,” it states in its site’s Who Are We section.
The portal has become a venue for many Filipino writers, especially the newbies, to find and take income opportunities through writing short articles. Scribbloo, just like its predecessor, has been paying about P80 to P150 per article (about 300 to 500 words). It eliminates the risk of not getting paid for written articles, a common problem for freelance writers not just in the country but across the globe. The portal also aims to help freelance writers develop their skills so they will be ready for bigger endeavors in the future.
Scribbloo has hired freelance writers not just from the Philippines but also from other nations like Malaysia, India, and Bangladesh. During its 12-year lifetime, Scribbloo has hired 6,860 writers, has transacted with 8,074 foreign clients, and has facilitated the completion of 65,838 writing projects/assignments.