Platforms, online labor markets, and crowdsourcing. Part 2. Crowdsourcing

This survey complements the general discussion of online labor platforms and focuses on crowdsourcing. When a business task is outsourced via a crowdsourcing platform, it is split into smaller so-called microtasks that are further distributed to a `crowd' of platform's workers. The majority of crowdsourced microtasks are standardized and not time-consuming. Therefore, any interested worker can supply his labor force in a crowdsourcing platform facing almost zero entry barriers and special requirements. This specific feature of crowdsourcing platforms and the workers involved distinguishes this market from other online labor platforms. In this survey, we compare a crowdsourcing market to online and offline labor markets. In particular, we provide arguments in favor of considering crowdsourcing as a complement to the traditional labor marker rather than its direct alternative. We give a special emphasis to crowdsourcing workers, their motivation to enter a platform, and their labor supply. Moreover, comparing different online labor markets' structures, we conclude that crowdsourcing is the closest one to standard two-sided platforms and, therefore, features large-magnitude indirect network effects. Deeping into the structure of crowdsourcing platforms, we consider peculiar approaches to matching and pricing in this market, as well as discuss problems in accessing labor force quality. Overall, crowdsourcing platforms expand the traditional labor market, whereas one should note that crowdsourcing regulation is heavily linked to policies developed to regulate analogous two-sided platforms.