Most jobtech platforms guard their reputation data like oil: too valuable to give away. The platforms getting ahead treat it more like a lubricant, something that moves workers and value through the whole labour market. This study, with GigCV, shows how.
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Data portability is what makes that shift possible. It is the ability for a worker to take their verified work record, their ratings, reviews, completed gigs and earnings history, and use it beyond the platform where they earned it. For jobtech platforms here in Africa, it is becoming a design decision worth making early. This study draws on a collaboration between Jobtech Alliance and GigCV, a non-profit data portability service, and sets out what portability unlocks, what it takes to build, and what founders across the network told us when we put the question to them.
What’s inside
- Why reputation data works better as a shared asset than a locked one, and what that shift unlocks for workers, platforms, policymakers and funders.
- Four platform case studies, Fixa, Tunga, Charly Cares and EqualReach, on what happened when they weighed up portability, including the one platform that integrated during the research period and what it learned.
- What more than 500 data workers told us they expect their platform data to be worth beyond the platform.
- A six-part starter kit for founders, from taking stock of your data to deciding whether to build, buy or collaborate.
About this study
This learning study is a collaboration between Jobtech Alliance and GigCV. GigCV is a non-profit data portability service, convened by platform researcher Martijn Arets and built with six platforms and a technical partner. The study also draws on survey work with the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences and the Data Labelers Association in Kenya, and on case studies with Fixa, Tunga, Charly Cares, and EqualReach.