Companion Service Review #1: Fiverr.com

July 23, 2022

Average Read Time: 7-10 Minutes

An Online Marketplace for Emotional Poverty

The world of purchasing platonic companions online has grown over the past few years. There are more than a few major websites to pick as a point of entry for this topic, so I'll begin with what I feel is easiest to digest.

When I started out doing interviews with Fiverr companion sellers, I wondered what, if anything, could be learned about own social shortcomings as a society from the very people who were involved with this service. Simple things like what drove their buyers to them, or what intentions they had behind promoting and selling such a service. I suppose the larger questions were, “how far have our social support structures fallen to allow for companion-for-hire services to take flight?”. Really, it was shaping up to be a study on socioecology.

I wanted to know what backgrounds and environments the consumers of companion services found themselves in. I wanted to know what exactly was the daily life of a companion seller looked like; who in my eyes, simply seemed to be monetizing other peoples' loneliness.

There will be many websites and companion platforms which will be covered in this series of service reviews. But for now, we'll be starting with something fairly easy to understand. A website where nearly anything can go up for sale: Fiverr.com

What is Fiverr?

For those who already know the basics of Fiverr, feel free to skip to the companion section.

If you're just interested in some of the resulting interview content, you can click here to jump to the first interview I did on Fiverr. It turned out to be a surprisingly enlightening interview, with a European woman who was selling her relaxed, cheerful disposition for $20 a pop.

Fiverr is an online marketplace for the selling of freelance services. It was launched back in 2010 – and since then, it has hosted millions of online temporary workers.

Fiverr grew in popularity for allowing anybody to hop online and begin freelance listings of their specializations and skills. Whether it be videography, graphic design, voice-over artists and more; the website gathered over 1 million listings in its first two years of operation. The site's layout was simple enough that anyone could come aboard, create an account, and get to work filling out orders in under a matter of hours.

Essentially it functions sort of like eBay, but for freelance work. Users create an account, write up and post their own services they want to provide, while Fiverr simply takes a flat 20% off the top of any orders or commissions you receive. Seeing as the website is aimed at providing services for the minimum of five dollars (hence the name), most sellers only see a flat $1 fee taken from them upon completing an order.

How Services are Provided

Fiverr's services are strictly handled through an online package system. The packages are set up by the sellers themselves, then delivered almost exclusively through the website, e-mail or by mail.

Packages on Fiverr are arranged in three-tiered system. You have Basic, Standard, and Premium tiers; with each increasing in rewards and price. Each package gives a description of what you will receive, the average wait time for the seller to respond to your request, and an ETA on your order's expected completion/delivery.

Before ordering a package, you are often encouraged to message the seller through Fiverr's messaging client and clarify the details of your order before it will be accepted. Generally speaking, as a buyer you will wait a business day or so and once in contact with your seller, you will come to a mutual agreement on what it is you want out of their provided services.

Fiverr's Online Companion Sellers

In terms of the selling of companionship and peoples' free time, this website makes for providing such services very easy for an independent.

With the exhaustive list of seller categories shown in the video above, you can see that Fiverr's offerings are vast. You'll also find a lot of strange services hidden within the alcoves of the website. It's up to the sellers to put their services in the proper categories; where some are so obscure they don't exactly fit any particular definition Fiverr provides. It is within the “Other” section of the Lifestyle category that you can find some of the most bizarre stuff on offer. And this is usually where the online companion services reside.

Many companionship listings tried to flavor their titles and descriptions a bit differently, but by and large, most were selling the same experience: “You give me X amount of money, and I'll keep you company over a phone call/voice chat/video game session; you name it”. Fiverr Sellers were charging anywhere between $5 to $200 and up for these services, and people were actually buying. Do keep in mind that all of these services were targeted towards the platonic, as Fiverr has a strict policy against NSFW material. Sellers were instead pitching the idea of being someone's 'sincere online friend' for $20 a session, without having to do anything provocative.

(I know this looks like a joke, but this is a taste of real listings found on Fiverr)

Some of the pictures above look absolutely absurd when paired with an obscene price tag to have an average person interact with you. But the above were all real listings that were seeing fairly decent returns during the popularity of hiring strangers on Fiverr.

While these service listings existed before 2020, the rise in their global popularity on Fiverr exploded during the pandemic as people were looking for something to do.

Whether out of sheer curiosity or general shock value, an influx of new users and online influencers began frequenting the website's companion section.

Seller profiles were coming in from all over the world! Hailing in from Vietnam, Nigeria, the Caribbean and the Philippines; all the way throughout the United States, Canada, and the EU. More on regions and demographics here.

Fiverr became an interesting platform for companion services as a result. When compared with other dedicated social-hire websites, this was a platform that so many people already trafficked for basic, unrelated services. In a way, it became a “gateway” website to some; who then sought companion services on other websites specifically dedicated to the cause.

While the height of popularity for companion profiles on Fiverr was found during 2020-2021, you can still search for “online friend, “companion”, or “genuine friend” and find many people making new accounts on the daily. All attempting to market themselves as the ideal companion for you to hire.

Now we'll talk about what some of these social services entail.

Choosing a Service, Choosing a “Companion”

In a separate article, I've spoken more about common seller personalities and the differences in seller demographics, but in this section I would like to speak about the common types of companion services you can purchase (specifically on Fiverr.com). There is quite the range on other websites, but for Fiverr, they typically boil down to three main categories:

Voice / Audio Sessions
Text-Based Sessions
Video Game Sessions

To spare having to repeat myself, please keep in mind that all of the following services are meant to be strictly platonic. None advertise themselves as relationship partners and Fiverr's Terms of Service does not allow any kind of NSFW (18+) adult services or activities.

Voice / Audio Sessions

Buyers are encouraged to hang out with their seller of choice over an online voice call or by phone; a service lasting an average 10 minutes to 3 hours, depending on the seller and package. These are designed to be very straightforward, simple meet-ups. The sellers usually encourage the buyer to open up, exchange stories, practice social skills, or talk about anything they'd like. In addition, some sellers also provide audio recording services - where a buyer can instead receive personalized voice recordings that can be sent to them during working hours, as morning wake-up calls, evening well-wishes, or exchanged between both parties through the day. These sessions can be a one-time event, or last up to a week or more. Generally these services are reserved for buyers who are uncomfortable having a voice call with someone, or would rather have someone to interact with sparingly throughout their work day or solitary lifestyle.

Text-Based Sessions

Buyers are given a time limit or set number of texts that can be shared before the session is considered complete and both parties go their separate ways. These text sessions are general held over popular online platforms that allow private messaging or by way of cellular texts, and last around 5 minutes to 1-2 hours. Anything past the 3 hour mark and text sessions are usually advertised as "intermittent texting" packages. For example: I've seen some texting packages that were up to 8 hours - and in the description, the seller usually stated something to the effect of "I'll text you over the course of 8 hours about your day or what I'm up to; but there will be breaks in between, because I have other matters to attend to." Most text services involve casual conversations, focused topics due to their shorter duration, or relatively insubstantial chats; as this particular service feels a little more impersonal than others. Its level of quality also relies heavily on the seller's ability to articulate themselves in a lively manner over text and keep a conversation flowing. But, apparently some people do like it.

Video Game Sessions

Video game sessions as a companion service offer a diverse selection depending on the platform. In terms of Fiverr, a seller lists a selection of multiplayer games that they own and offers to play a few matches or rounds of the chosen game with their buyer. Depending on the tier, video game sessions can last anywhere from 30 minutes to 3+ hours of play. However, some could be as short as a 25-30 seconds if the seller chooses to charge by match and you're playing an elimination-based game. If your group loses right of the bat and you've only paid for one game, you'll have to pay for more.

Buyers also have the option of purchasing a second copy of a game they wish to play with their seller and gifting it to them. This means that a buyer might potentially pay the average price of a retail game ($10-$60), in addition to purchasing the allotted playtime with their partner.

It's worth mentioning that these services are not to be confused with the competitive game coaching services that are also prevalent on Fiverr. Those are services where a professional or skilled player can be hired to help you improve your mechanical skills, hand-eye coordination, strategy and so forth. Those services are useful if you're planning on competing in tournaments where prize pools of money are won, or just wanting to play better at a competitive game.

The companion variant however, is provided by mostly non-professionals who simply play a game with you casually to keep you company.

Here I have linked the companion interview for this article once more: https://write.as/thechronicenquirer/h1european-fiverr-interview-1-the-highlights-h1

To my surprise, it was very insightful; with spoonfuls of European snark and interesting perspectives on the minds and relationship of the buyer/seller dynamic.

Follow Up Links The Differences in Seller Demographics .Seller Description Examples (Coming Soon)

#OnlineServices, #EmotionalCommodification