The global graphic design market is worth $57.5 billion in 2023-24 and is expected to reach $78.25 billion by the end of this decade. The global demand for visual elements in different formats such as website graphics, illustrations, web design, posters, packaging materials, branding collaterals, marketing collaterals, etc. remains the primary contributor to the industry’s success. However, the market dynamics have shifted from hiring a permanent designer to freelance contractors who can bring more creativity to a design project.
This is particularly true in the case of large-scale projects that require highly skilled professionals. Due to the high charges of these professionals, smaller companies can’t hire them on a permanent basis and thus, prefer to hire them on a per-job basis. Fulfilling this demand for skilled creative professionals, Behance and Dribbble emerged as dedicated marketplaces to help graphic designers and digital artists showcase their portfolios and get hired.
Both Behance and Dribbble work similarly and have common offerings for customers, which are highly talented designers backed by their creative portfolios already published on the platform. This creates a sense of reliability and trust amongst the customers who can verify the previous works of designers. However, despite the huge demand for freelance creative professionals, the number of dedicated platforms for them is quite limited. This opens an opportunity to gain a competitive edge by launching a marketplace like Behance and Dribbble.
To help interested entrepreneurs launch their own creative professional marketplaces, we have created this guide that includes everything from Behance and Dribbble’s USPs to the most practical development approach.
Let’s learn a little about the background of these two marketplaces.
Behance is one of the first marketplaces for sharing digital artwork. It was launched in the year 2005 as a social media platform where multiple talents could sign up and share their designs. In 2012, Behance raised $6.5 million in funding from notable investors including Amazon’s founder Jeff Bezos. Seeing the platform’s success rate, it was later acquired by Adobe in December 2012. Today, Behance has more than 24 million members and an estimated annual revenue of $632 million.
Launched Year: 2005
Founded by: Matias Corea and Scott Belsky
Annual Revenue Estimate: $632 million
Total Number of Users: 24 million
Dribbble is another marketplace for sharing and distributing digital art. On Dribbble, corporates can easily find skilled professionals for their design work and directly hire them. The platform was launched as an MVP in 2008 by Dan Cederholm and Rich Thornett. Initially, Dribbble only worked on an invite-only model but became public in 2010. Today, Dribbble is available in 195 countries and has an average of 4 million users every month. In terms of revenue, Dribbble makes an estimated $97.5 million every year.
Launched Year: 2008
Founded by: Dan Cederholm and Rich Thornett
Annual Revenue Estimate: $97.5 million
Total Number of Users: 16 million
Although both Behance and Dribbble were one of a kind when they were first launched, they still had to innovate and improvise their unique selling points (USPs) in order to compete with existing recruitment platforms and freelance marketplaces like ODesk (now UpWork), Guru and Freelance.com. Thus, to give a reference overview of their USPs, both Behance, and Dribbble primarily focused on the following USPs.
In the past, several freelancing marketplaces and recruiting platforms also existed where designers could sign up and showcase their work. However, none of those platforms were as dedicatedly developed for designers as Behance and Dribbble. Due to this, the entire interface of these platforms looked highly focused and concentrated towards digital artists. These two platforms became more relatable for designers as they got a clear idea of what the platforms were and how they could help them advance their careers.
On Behance and Dribbble, digital artists and clients benefitted from a trust factor. Both these platforms allowed designers and digital artists to upload broad portfolios of their work. Due to this, the designers were able to showcase their skills and expand their online presence. The leads attracted through Behance and Dribbble were also high-quality and more likely to convert. Additionally, the widespread presence of Dribbble and Behance professionals on social media channels like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram further created credibility for these platforms and their users.
Through Behance and Dribbble, not only could designers showcase their portfolios but also sell their creative artwork in different digital formats, such as images, illustrations, videos, animations, PDFs, and more. Being a global platform, Behance and Dribbble could help designers attract big-ticket clients from all across the world and do off-shore operations. To promote safe and secure transactions, Behance also partnered with Stripe which provides online payment processing in over 135 currencies.
Behance and Dribbble acted as a proper social media network for designers. Meaning, users could follow their favorite artists and view updates on their new work. Likewise, corporations got a search portal where they could search for designers and explore thousands of profiles for hiring purposes. In fact, after a while, both Behance and Dribbble included a dedicated hiring module on their marketplaces.
As Behance and Dribbble gained global recognition, they started to become an inspiration for existing and aspiring artists. The diverse artwork available on these platforms received social acknowledgement and talented artists started getting the praise they deserved. This encouraged fellow artists, including students, young professionals, and working mothers to share their artwork as well. This is also one of the primary reasons behind the huge popularity of these platforms.
Along with acting as a platform to share artwork and hire digital artists, Behance and Dribbble started providing their design courses and live workshops. Because of these platforms’ global recognition, their design courses gained immense success. These courses can also be directly accessed through the official websites of Behance and Dribbble. Additionally, the competitions organized on these platforms further increased the engagement rate for digital artists and winners also received a career boost.
For revenue generation purposes, digital art marketplaces like Behance and Dribbble can rely on the following channels:
1. Advertisements: Professionals can advertise their artwork on these platforms.
2. Pro Memberships: Digital artists can sign up for special membership plans that provide them with extra benefits.
3. Job Board: Platforms like Dribbble and Behance have a job-board where different companies can pay for uploading a job. This helps them find good talent in a minimum time frame.
4. Courses and Live Workshops: Dribbble is also selling design courses and conducting live workshops on the platform. These are some potential means of revenue generation.
5. Sales Commission: Just like Behance, you can charge a small commission fee on every digital art sale that takes place on the platform.
6. Contests and Competitions: Like Dribbble, you can organize different design competitions on your digital artists marketplaces where you can charge money from both designers (registration fee) and sponsors.
7. Featured Profiles: You can charge designers to feature their profiles in the most viewed sections of the platform.
To capitalize on the growing graphic designing and digital art industry, entrepreneurs can launch their own Behance and Dribbble like platform. This way, they can help the digital art communities of their target regions grow and establish a name in the market. However, developing such a platform may require rigorous efforts, including identifying the required features, creating user workflows, preparing the source code, configuring the platform and running marketing campaigns.
In the following sections, we have included the technical aspects of the launch that include the key features and development approaches. For proper consultation on the launch strategy, technology and marketing, we recommend reaching out to our business experts.
To build a Behance and Dribbble alternative platform and conduct smooth business operations, you will require the following features:
Software development approaches have been improvised throughout the years. What used to be a time and cost-intensive approach has now been replaced by ready-made no code and low code software. As per a study conducted by Gartner, nearly 70% of all software applications will be developed with no code or low code software by 2025. Additionally, these readymade software also reduce the entire development time by up to 90%.
Below are the major differences between using the bespoke development approach vs no code and low code software:
| Bespoke Development | Using No Code and Low Code Software |
|---|---|
| Requires you to conduct a thorough feature analysis first. You may miss important features. | Come with all essential features. Require minimum customization in case of any additional requirements. |
| The development time is very long as everything needs to be developed from scratch. | The development time is short. In case of no customizations, the software can be deployed within 1-2 business days. |
| Highly cost-inclusive. Include hourly development charges for every developer working on the project. | Cost-effective. The software has already been developed by the provider and is available as a readymade package. |
| Not tried and tested for market scenarios. This may create any problems later. | Tried and tested for all major market scenarios. |
| Will require you to track the development progress and take follow-ups the entire time. | Progress tracking and follow-ups are only required for any additional customizations. The rest of the software is already developed. |
| Data migration is difficult, as the software developed using this approach are made to use as a lifetime software. | Data migration options are available so that entrepreneurs can easily migrate from their existing software. Meanwhile, lifetime licensing is also available. |
To provide you with a factual and more transparent opinion, low code solutions seems to be your only reliable option. This is because at the moment, there are no no-code software available in the market that come with 100% support for developing a Behance and Dribbble alternative marketplace.
However, there are a few low-code software available that can be used as a base for this business proposition. These low-code software meet 80%-90% requirements of a digital artist marketplace and will immensely decrease your development cost and timeframe. Out of the several low-code software available in the market, Yo!Gigs service marketplace software best matches your requirements.
Developed for all service marketplace models, Yo!Gigs is a readymade solution that helps you connect thousands of freelance service providers with seekers. It has in-built support for digital artists including graphic designers, UI/UX designers, animators, voiceover artists and more. Furthermore, it has already been tried and tested to conduct freelancer service marketplace operations and can help you deal with numerous business use cases.
Some key features of Yo!Gigs that will be helpful in developing your Behance and Dribbble like platform are:
Other Reasons to Select Yo!Gigs
The graphic designing industry has an invulnerable nature that makes it resilient against all types of economic downfalls and turbulence. Due to this, this is an evergreen industry. However, it is the corporate designers who face job uncertainties during any economic crises and thus have to resort to freelancing. By launching a marketplace like Behance and Dribbble, you can not only help such individuals but also assist the entire digital artists community grow. You can help budding designers to showcase their talents and existing professionals create captivating portfolios and find high paying jobs.
All innovation starts with an idea to solve real-world problems. At FATbit Technologies we are passionate about driving digital transformation to prepare businesses for a digital-first tomorrow. Let’s discuss your BIG idea NOW.
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Abhishek Kataria is a business consultant at FATbit Technologies. He assists entrepreneurs and business owners in developing viable digital touchpoints and marketplaces. Abhishek is curious about exploring and analyzing new business trends and has a keen eye for the latest developments in the eCommerce sector. Apart from consulting, you can find him practicing French and exploring his creativity in Photoshop.
