Fast 50 from Freelancer.com

Its analysts assessed 295,259 jobs posted this past quarter and have outlined a number of trends and opinions:

• Apple's iPhone 6 breaks seven consecutive quarters of Android dominance

• Pinterest is becoming more essential than Twitter and Facebook in social media
• Entrepreneurs embrace original content creation with eBooks, photography, and blogging
• New Microsoft CEO breathes life into Windows programming jobs

• eBay flubs in light of Alibaba IPO

The Q3 results have been dominated by massive increases in social media jobs, up a collective 63% on Q2. A plethora of product releases pitched squarely at eCommerce advertisers, including an expansion of the long-awaited Promoted Pins, has seen Pinterest jobs skyrocket. Meanwhile, the launch of the Apple iPhone 6 has finally ended seven consecutive quarters of Android dominance but will it last?

"In business and technology, it is common to see the underdogs suddenly rise up and knock the incumbent out of the top spot which, in turn, shakes up the industry and changes consumer perceptions and the business landscape. This Fast 50 shows Pinterest, Apple, Microsoft and Alibaba all making moves, some game changing and disruptive, jostling for a top position. As a result, business owners are changing perceptions and shifting where and how they invest to grow their businesses," says Freelancer.com CEO, Matt Barrie.

Pinterest rise

Pinterest's meteoric rise is shaking up social networks and what they mean for business. The visual bookmarking platform is finally making moves to monetise through the expansion of Promoted Pins, and the results have been astounding - a 1065% increase to 1480 in related jobs, as eCommerce advertisers see encouraging results. Key product releases in the last few months, pitched squarely at small business advertisers, include an overhaul of its analytics platform, self-service ads, a news tab to push out fresh content, search-prioritised Rich Pins and more.

What started out as a platform many critics dismissed as an unremarkable site for scrapbooking has managed to build itself up into one of, if not the major player in the social media arena. While Pinterest's user count is relatively low at 70 million, its user base hits a lucrative niche - 80% of Pinterest's user base are women. However, the secret sauce that has advertisers salivating is engagement of its user base - the average Pinterest user spends 98 minutes per month on the platform.

Drilling down the stats even further, the numbers grow to astronomical proportions. Pinterest users have created more than 750 million boards, which include more than 30 billion individual pins, with a staggering 54 million new pins being added each day. If you needed any more convincing of its power, during the holiday season in 2013, it accounted for nearly a quarter of all social sharing activity. It is second only to Facebook among social networks when it comes to driving traffic to websites.

It has also just hired one of Google's high profile media partnership managers, Robert Macdonald and have ex Facebook's Director of Monetization (2006-2010) Tim Kendall on board. Kendall, a key figure in Facebook's highly successful monetisation strategy, has bullishly claimed Pinterest will be bigger than Facebook and Google. We expect the amount of Pinterest-related work, from image production, to ads, to community cultivation to be a mainstay in the Fast 50 for many years to come.

Google+ surges

Google+ has also enjoyed a dramatic resurgence, increasing 532% from 269 jobs to 1,699 jobs this quarter and Google AdWords has had a smaller yet still significant increase of 22% to 1,238 jobs. This is related to the release of its Partner Playbook that acts as a best practice reference for its 'partners' to get more engagement using Google's platforms.

Social has generally had an exceptional quarter, with Social Media Marketing up 96% to 3,755, Twitter up 56% to 3,662 jobs, Facebook Marketing up 20% to 8571 jobs. The general trend towards visual, engaging and original content has driven strong growth in the visual design arena, with Photography up 24% to 1,521 jobs, Photo Editing up 29% to 2,199 jobs, Photoshop up 29% to 13374 jobs and Illustrator projects are up 22% to 4,730 jobs. 3D content is also continuing to feature, with 3D rendering up 20% and 3D Design up 14% to 3,731 and 1,224 jobs respectively.

Original writing needed

The focus on original content has been formalised by Google and this has delivered a surge in jobs for the content industry. The 'little or no original content' section of Google's Webmaster Guidelines has been updated, forcing site and blog owners to embrace more relevant and original content. Producing unique and relevant content takes strategic planning and creative talent, and in relation to this, we have seen the demand for original content generation increase across the Freelancer.com platform.

Book Writing is up 30% to 1,314 jobs, Photography is up 24% to 1,521 jobs, eBooks are up 21% to 1,318 jobs, Editing is up 21% to 244 jobs and Blogging is up 15% to 4,290 jobs. People are caring more about what is published versus just reposting and scraping content. This means a better and more engaging experience for all.

Apple up

Apple breaks seven consecutive quarters of Android dominance with the launch of the iPhone 6. Ever the expert marketer, Apple has successfully drummed up global hysteria with the release of the iPhone 6 and its first foray into the phablet space with the iPhone 6 Plus. After months of hype building, consumers have flocked to purchase the smartphone in such numbers that the company has been forced to delay deliveries just to control the demand. Even after the U2 iTunes hijack, Apple is still flying high.

Businesses have been drawn into believing that iOS is the operating system they should be investing their budget in as they build apps and products to tap into the Apple consumer market, but is this new device enough to allow Apple to dominate? The International Data Corporation's numbers do not think so. From April to June in 2014, 301 million smartphones were sold across the world - a record quarterly figure, but a monumental 85% of these were Android. In fact, Apple's global market share dropped from 13% to 11.7% in the same period.

While the Fast 50 numbers don't show a significant increase in the demand for iOS vs. Android development, both iPhone and iPad development are up by over 11% to 10,161 jobs and 2,856 jobs respectively, and Android is up 9.1%. What is certain from this is that the race is still close. With Apple clearly following trends set by Samsung, HTC and friends, it indicates that consumers are potentially going to be a lot less loyal to one platform and they may shift as new hardware is released.

Microsoft resurgence

Is Microsoft set for a resurgence? It seems like the Microsoft stack is really heating up. Both SQL Server and ASP.net are up by 259% and 179% to 1,076 and 1,935 jobs respectively. Has the appointment of new Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, with his focus on cloud computing, reinvigorated the company seen by many developers and consumers alike as old-fashioned and out of touch? In July 2014, he sent around an internal memo detailing his vision for the company's future, highlighting his vision for a Microsoft that focuses on "Productivity and Platforms" - is his vision starting to take hold?

Alibaba debut

Is the online trading powerhouse eBay feeling the pressure after Alibaba's strong debut? With the dust still settling after the record-breaking Alibaba IPO, eBay has announced that it is spinning off PayPal debt-free. At the same time, eBay jobs on Freelancer.com have dropped 14% this quarter. Does eBay have structural or brand problems? Has eBay stopped innovating? Is the eCommerce titan about to hit an iceberg, with PayPal fleeing in a lifeboat?

Alibaba's IPO has formalised the rise of a new eCommerce titan and presented a stark challenge to incumbents eBay and Amazon. Stay tuned - 2015 could herald one of the greatest business battles in history. Can eBay survive the Crocodile on the Yangtze and The Everything Store?