MELBOURNE, Australia, Dec. 13, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Freelancer.com has been presented a Smart Company Web Award in the category for Best Company Website with over 20 employees.

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For the fourth year in a row, SmartCompany has recognized the best in Australian internet enterprise with its Web Award. Selected by a panel of fifteen judges with expertise across a broad range of industries, winners in eight categories are chosen based on their innovation and excellence in design, user experience and implementation. Past winners have included world-renowned digital marketing blog Digital Buzz and popular matrimonial planning site Easy Weddings.

This year, Freelancer.com was honored with the award for Best Company Website with more than 20 employees. After a string of acquisitions, CEO Matt Barrie has grown his website to an impressive population of nearly 7 million users, greater than the population of countries like Libya, Denmark and Singapore. The key to its success has been Barrie's enthusiastic embrace of constant innovation and improvement.

Freelancer.com both affirms and defines the outsourcing and crowdsourcing phenomenon that is sweeping the services industry and empowering SME's and entrepreneurs worldwide. An acute focus on design and user experience, coupled with a strong business model, has driven Freelancer.com's meteoric growth. SmartCompany Web Award judge and head of strategy at Edge Custom, Richard Parker, lauded Freelancer.com's direct, to-the-point approach to user experience.

"The site features very simple information architecture, making for an easy to use experience. All in all, it's a very slick, robust, accomplished and active site that feels full of life and purpose," said Parker. The Freelancer.com Chief Executive couldn't agree more. "The user experience is key," he says. "It's the difference between a $1 billion company and a company that doesn't get off the ground. We are constantly working to make things simpler and faster and more streamlined."

The Best Website Company Award gives Barrie yet one more reason to be optimistic about where his outsourcing marketplace is headed. "Freelancer.com has brought SMEs to the frontlines of the global economy, and Freelancer.com will continue to lead the charge," he says of his company's trajectory in the industry. "We couldn't be more pleased about being singled out by SmartCompany this year. For four straight years, they've spotted some real innovators in web business, so this award puts us in good company."

About Freelancer
Triple Webby award-winning Freelancer.com is the largest outsourcing and crowdsourcing marketplace in the world. Freelancer.com connects businesses with over 4 million independent professionals globally, specializing in fields as diverse as software development, writing, marketing, engineering, and the sciences. The average job is completed for under US$200, making Freelancer.com extremely cost-effective for small businesses unable to justify the expense of hiring full time.

SOURCE Freelancer.com