Reasons Why Some Sellers Hide Their Country

[Guest mcromano]

Hello guys!

Since a lot of questions have popped up lately regarding why certain sellers hide their country of origin, I’ve decided to make a thread with a response I gave to someone.



I understand sellers’ reasoning for hiding their countries, but don’t agree to it. The issue is that at a certain point, foreign nations got a bad name due to bad freelancing practices and dumping prices, and now there is a whole stereotype of sellers from certain countries being bad at what they do, or simply scammers.





Therefore, sellers hide their countries either:

(1) Because they fear discrimination, racism, xenophobia, or being put together in the same bunch as the rotten apples that spoiled the whole thing

(2) To scam people.

Either is deceptive, but the first one is understandable.



But why did this happen? Why do certain countries get a bad name?

I’ll let you in on what I know from what happened on other freelancing platforms.



Please note that I am not talking about ALL sellers from those countries, nor am I saying having a certain nationality makes you more inclined to be a bad seller.



Beware: Wall of Text!



For example, let’s take sellers from India and China. Some are very good…and some are so bad that they shame their whole nationality on a given platform and make it harder for the good workers. What I’m about to say isn’t exclusive to these nationalities, just what I’ve noticed and what my other freelancer friends are complaining about. It might be they are just more numerous!



Why do other freelancers dislike working with certain nationalities?



The issue is that at a certain point there was a flood of Indian/Chinese sellers on freelancing platforms, fiverr included. They introduced very low dumping prices that no country with a higher denomination could match (Say, 5$ per 2000 words, when an American would charge 5$ per 500 words). This happened due to the fact that the dollar has more buying power than their national currency, thus they could work for less dollars and still make massive profits.

This made a lot of freelancers very bitter towards them since they stole all the work away with their low prices.



Now, what about the buyers?



There is also a cultural and linguistic barrier here. Many Indians were “yes men” who said they could do something, but delivered poor results. Or simply did not understand what they had to do…This is a cultural thing from what I’ve heard, and reflective of the work culture in their own country. If anyone can contradict me, please do so because this is actually a topic I’m very interested in! I don’t know what made the Chinese be dismissed by buyers…probably a language barrier?



Regarding the language barrier…it’s self explanatory. When you want to work within international markets you need to know English and be able to understand complex concepts, sentence structure etc. You also need to not be prideful and ask when you don’t understand something. People want to sell, but some of these sellers might now know English at an acceptable level. This is, of course, not limited to chinese/indian people…everyone has the potential to suck at English, lol.

What’s the conclusion?

Because their brethren already made a bad name for themselves, lead the freelancing/buyer community to star stereotyping them as bad sellers, Indian & Chinese sellers are less likely to want to show their country in their profiles. I understand WHY, but I don’t approve of it.

Note: I am not talking about ALL Chinese/Indian sellers, nor is the issue limited to them. I’ve worked with some awesome ones in the past! But some rotten apples make the whole bunch seem spoiled even if it’s not so, for some people.



Opinions? Thoughts?

[videoroll]

I fully agree with you when you say that Indian and Chinese sellers (regardless of race) make really big profit from even the lowest 5$ prices for large projects ! The $ when converted to their local currencies, makes lot of money, that which makes them take away the work from other sellers whose countries’ currencies won’t make much value difference when converted from the dollar. Who would do an explainer video or white board animation for 5$ ??? They will definitely do it !!! Sri Lanka sellers are also included in this, same high profit from low dollar prices. There are sellers from India, China, and Sri Lanka who are very brave and professional, and they are countless ! Regardless of race, we are talking finances here, online marketplaces should find a balance for this, otherwise, the future of online marketing and careers would be definitely in the hands of people from countries like India, China and Sri Lanka, whose dollar when converted to their currencies, makes really big profit, and of course, buyers would prefer them, especially the professionals and those who offer clean work and on time. This should not end, we want to see those sellers stay online and enjoy their wonderful works, but in the same time, there should be a balance, a way that can be found where all sellers worldwide would be working on the same financial margin and leverage, when it comes to transferring from the dollar to their local currencies. Note again : I am not by any way talking racism ! we are all people, humans, and sellers wherever we are from, and online markets as Fiverr are offering us a great opportunity as a community, so we should fully respect that !



any opinions ?

[ajksa123]

lol, “YES MEN” It is a cultural thing with no offence for Indian. with all my respect but there is a lot of smart indians out there but don’t expect so much for only $5.