Microsoft has launched a brand new online marketplace which allowed users that sign-up and look for a potentially right one to solve their own problems. This online market place is called Task Market, read the name assume that you know what they want to do next. Underneath this newly founded startup also lies Microsoft’s evolving strategy in Web 2.0 field. As stated on Task Market’s FAQ, it aimed to connect small businesses with skilled freelancers for marketing and other document help such as graphic design, writing and editing, document translation, and creating or enhancing presentations and spreadsheets. I see it as an online marketplace to extend the market share of Microsoft Office in the small business sector.

Task Market is being developed by two important units of Microsoft, Microsoft Research Asia and Microsoft Office Labs. It is temporarily in preview mode, with a business model that when an user offered the job and posted it out on Task Market, and on the other hand, users with the confident to complete the job task will seek the job permission from the job poster. Upon an user is being selected as the one who complete the job, she will receive the payment through PayPal. As usual, each job is allowed to be tagged by the job poster, and hence improve the visibility of the job. To praise and sell the job solver, job poster also can rate the job solver in a scale from one to five star.

Microsoft is leverage its brand asset as it pursues its Web 2.0 dream. But like other players, it face competitors in this field, most notably Elance, and oDesk.

via [Webware]