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When Glen Paul lost his mate’s ring in Lyneham this week he didn’t give up looking for it once his enthusiasm had been exhausted; he outsourced the problem. Mr Paul was one of an increasing number of Canberrans who paid people to do chores they didn’t have time, or in his case, didn’t feel like doing this year. In the ACT, strangers made more than $826,000 in 2020 from other strangers with tasks as varied as oiling a deck to booking a car ride for a dog. Online marketplace, Airtasker, generated 33 per cent more revenue for Canberrans in 2020 compared to 2019. A total of 23,948 tasks were posted in the ACT in 2020 with jobs for removalists, gardening, cleaning and waste disposal the most requested. Andrew G earned $50 for searching Mr Paul’s neighbour’s front lawn with a metal detector in the hope of locating the friend’s silver ring. The dog-taxi driver pocketed $160 for an eight-minute drive from its owner’s accommodation to a winery near Murrumbateman. Mr Paul was unsuccessful in locating the ring he’d unintentionally wrestled off his mate’s finger while play-fighting in the street. However, many ‘Taskers’ came out on top in 2020, particularly those specialising in interior design, with a 65 per cent increase in requests for creatives to breathe fresh life into Australian homes compared to last year. Online lockdown parties, personnel training, as well as yoga and meditation were also among the most-requested tasks during COVID-19, according to Airtasker’s consumer trends report. Founded in Sydney in 2012, the startup was named as one of Deloitte’s Technology Fast50 in 2020, among the fastest-growing tech companies in Australia. The online marketplace is part of the gig economy, which included Uber and Deliveroo. READ ALSO: Like the delivery services, which were often divisive between those who claimed they couldn’t live without them and those who claimed they eroded workers’ rights, Airtasker was not without its critics. As for Mr Paul, he’s decided to just lean in. “I think it’s definitely a problem and I know I am perpetuating that problem,” he said. “We’re just so time-poor these days, even though I wasn’t actually doing too much else.”
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When Glen Paul lost his mate’s ring in Lyneham this week he didn’t give up looking for it once his enthusiasm had been exhausted; he outsourced the problem.
Mr Paul was one of an increasing number of Canberrans who paid people to do chores they didn’t have time, or in his case, didn’t feel like doing this year.
In the ACT, strangers made more than $826,000 in 2020 from other strangers with tasks as varied as oiling a deck to booking a car ride for a dog.
Online marketplace, Airtasker, generated 33 per cent more revenue for Canberrans in 2020 compared to 2019.
A total of 23,948 tasks were posted in the ACT in 2020 with jobs for removalists, gardening, cleaning and waste disposal the most requested.
Andrew G earned $50 for searching Mr Paul’s neighbour’s front lawn with a metal detector in the hope of locating the friend’s silver ring.
The dog-taxi driver pocketed $160 for an eight-minute drive from its owner’s accommodation to a winery near Murrumbateman.
Mr Paul was unsuccessful in locating the ring he’d unintentionally wrestled off his mate’s finger while play-fighting in the street.
However, many ‘Taskers’ came out on top in 2020, particularly those specialising in interior design, with a 65 per cent increase in requests for creatives to breathe fresh life into Australian homes compared to last year.
Online lockdown parties, personnel training, as well as yoga and meditation were also among the most-requested tasks during COVID-19, according to Airtasker’s consumer trends report.
Founded in Sydney in 2012, the startup was named as one of Deloitte’s Technology Fast50 in 2020, among the fastest-growing tech companies in Australia.
The online marketplace is part of the gig economy, which included Uber and Deliveroo.
Like the delivery services, which were often divisive between those who claimed they couldn’t live without them and those who claimed they eroded workers’ rights, Airtasker was not without its critics.
As for Mr Paul, he’s decided to just lean in.
“I think it’s definitely a problem and I know I am perpetuating that problem,” he said.
“We’re just so time-poor these days, even though I wasn’t actually doing too much else.”
