Thread: Why are freelancers from India so cheap?

Is the economy there so disastrous that you guys are working for crumbs and not mind? I've seen freelancers from India that are talented and good writers going for as low as $0.5 for a 500 words article. That's insane.

Thats probbably some students trying to cover up for their daily cigrette expenses.. we dont have a culture of students working part time and all students expenses are paid for by parents here unlike western countries where most of them only have an option to get a loan and then work for their living expenses.
Yes you will find all sorts of people from India... rich poor.. and a large middle class.

Yes employment is a bit of a problem right now in India but it is improving by the day and our economy is exploding at a rate of 8-9% per annum.. see it double in the next 7-8 years for sure...

I am sure you are going to get a lot of replies to this thread

well mostly people who go for such cheap labour .. do it in the beginning ..i.e. to get an experinec, learn the job or to see if they really can earn money that way..

infact i did write a few 500 word articles for Rs. 25.
that was in the start, i dint have any experinec and dint how how much time and efffort it would take.
Now i know better

Only those people who do not know their 'real' global value go for such down to earth rates. I was in that category too initially when I started my career as a freelancer. Nowadays people come to know their real value sooner than expected and get a good pay.

~ Pothi

In India most of the companies require experience to employee you.

And to provide service for a very cheap rate or even free is common is India to get experience

In engineering i have seen some start up companies employing freshers by taking an initial advance from them and them employing them, which they later cover from the salary they get

Originally Posted by Oigen

Is the economy there so disastrous that you guys are working for crumbs and not mind? I've seen freelancers from India that are talented and good writers going for as low as $0.5 for a 500 words article. That's insane.

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it is a mighty tough to compete with native writers , and not only that our people will appreciate if we got some recognition from the west .
I am a playwright and I write English plays and when I went and contacted a Director who is staging plays he told me he will take plays of western authors or famous dramatists Like Girish Karnad . what option we have . only charge less
padma