Crowdsourcing: Which is the Development Stage of the Crowdsourcing Practice in Romania?

In the era of digital marketing, customer engagement is one of the novel principles which became a priority for marketers. Within this framework, crowdsourcing gained ground at global scale. Numerous companies provide individuals various opportunities to participate in specific marketing projects. Worldwide, both small and large companies provide examples of successful crowdsourcing. At the same time, a new category of “service providers” emerged under the form of crowdsourcing platforms. They act as “bridges” between the organizations that seek support for different tasks and the communities of individuals able and willing to accomplish the assigned tasks. The present paper is based on a research study accomplished with the goal to identify the present stage of development of the crowdsourcing practice in Romania. The main research objectives referred to aspects such as: to discover relevant examples of companies that relied on individuals and crowdsourcing platforms for their projects; to identify crowdsourcing platforms existing in Romania; to study the objectives and characteristics of each platform; to compare the stated results obtained by the platforms. The study had an exploratory nature and the research method was based on the analysis of secondary sources of information available in the online environment. This approach brings added value compared to previous reflections on this topic, in Romania. The extra-value is generated by the comparative approach of the crowdsourcing platforms and by the systematic analysis based on preset criteria. Research findings may contribute to more effective differentiation of the present platforms and to more informed choices of the crowdsourcing partners.