Digital reputation, skills and uncertainty reduction on global digital labour platforms

Abstract

Digital labour platforms have become increasingly common for the trade of a range of digitally transferable services. To help participants mitigate the uncertainty that is inherent to trading on digital platforms, feedback mechanisms have become the main tool to gauge the ‘performed’ quality and reliability of platform participants. Based on an analysis of 750 written feedback texts, this article first examines which freelancer qualities (technical skills, generic skills or personal competences) matter most to clients and, therefore, are instrumental to the building of a freelancer’s digital reputation on a platform and, second, how exactly these feedback texts help reduce uncertainty when trading via a platform. Herewith, this paper adds to a deeper understanding of the ‘rules of the game’ on digital labour platforms.