In April 2015, Freelancer announced a deal to acquire Escrow.com for $7.5 million. Since then, members of the domain community have expressed concerns regarding the future of Escrow.com as a company. In November 2015, the news of Brandon Abbey's departure from Escrow.com was reported, ending his long-term involvement with the company.
With the announcement that Jackson Elsegood will be the new Escrow.com General Manager, I took the opportunity to ask him about the new Escrow.com: whether it will change and how Freelancer will improve the already excellent escrow service.
NP: Can you tell us a bit about yourself and your role within the new Escrow.com set up?
Jackson: My role at Escrow.com is to lead the strategic development of our service, coordinate each of our global offices, and make sure our customers get the best possible experience. I have been working very closely with the rest of the team. Previously in my career, I worked in process innovation and led the development of Internet payment gateways. I’m looking forward to bringing that experience to Escrow.com and the domaining community especially.
NP: Are you an active domain name investor, or do you plan to invest in domains?
Jackson: Staff at Escrow.com are not allowed to invest in domains, so unfortunately that’s off limits for me. This rule is all a part of ensuring that staff work completely independently and are able to deal with market sensitive transactions with the absolute highest level of trust.
NP: Why did Freelancer.com decide to acquire Escrow.com?
Jackson: All major global marketplaces today involve payments businesses - eBay have got PayPal, Amazon has Amazon Payments, and Alibaba has AliPay. There is a huge amount of potential to add to the already great services that Escrow.com offers, and Freelancer.com has the scale and expertise to make that vision a reality.
NP: Will Escrow.com continue to operate as a standalone company, or will the company and service be integrated into Freelancer.com’s website?
Jackson: Escrow.com will continue to be run as a standalone company. Jobs on the Freelancer.com marketplace have already been secured and managed with Escrow.com’s services and will continue to do so. In the future, we will be taking a look at how we can make it easier to secure transactions from all our partner marketplaces and Freelancer.com is included in those.
NP: What can Freelancer offer to the already excellent services of Escrow.com?
Jackson: To start with, there will be customer service improvements - moving gradually towards 24/7 multilingual support. Some of our customers would have already experienced this when they connected with a Chinese language support team member or called during our new extended support hours.
Adding additional currencies and payment methods is up next. Freelancer.com currently transacts in 20 major currencies worldwide, and I would like to see Escrow.com meet or exceed that standard.
NP: Do you plan on redesigning the Escrow.com website to make the interface simpler to use for domain buyers and sellers?
Jackson: We want to make sure that what people like about the service stays the same.
We will aim to modernize the existing marketing site with a new one to make it mobile responsive, faster for users around the world, and multilingual (Mandarin and English first). In the future, we will also enhance the key parts of the logged in site to be mobile responsive and improve small parts of the UI to make it easier to use for first time buyers and sellers.
NP: As a service that many NamePros members use regularly, I’m sure they are all interested to know whether there will be any major changes in the service at Escrow.com?
Jackson: The major changes will be on the technology side, and what people like about the service will stay the same. Customer support will be expanded rapidly and even more resources will be dedicated to making the site operate smoothly and intuitively.
NP: Whilst Brandon Abbey was at Escrow.com, many domain investors reached out to him to help customize Escrow transactions or to provide reassurance to nervous buyers. Will this kind of service still be available?
Jackson: Definitely. We put Escrow.com’s office phone numbers at the top of our homepage for anyone to reach us and talk to our staff directly. Keith Gettle, Escrow.com’s Operations Manager, and I are also always available for our customers.
NP: Escrow.com was largely made what it is today by domain transactions and domain investors. Have you (or will you) be listening to feedback from domain investors during your plans to develop the Escrow.com service?
Jackson: I’ve already spoken to a great number of our partners and regular buyers and sellers, and I hope to talk to even more in the coming months. The feedback that our users give us is included in everything that we do, and a lot of their requests and recommendations are already being worked on by our engineering and support team.
NP: If anyone would like to submit feedback to the Escrow.com team, can they do that?
Jackson: Absolutely, feedback is always welcome. We collect feedback at [email protected], or if you’d prefer to email me directly, my email address is [email protected].
NP: What does Freelancer.com hope to achieve at Escrow.com in the next year, the next five years, and the next ten years?
Jackson: The mission for Escrow.com in the future is simple: to continue to be the safest way to transact online. In the coming years, we will make the service faster and easier to use, expand to new offices and languages, and add new currencies and ways to pay. In five and ten years, Escrow.com will still be the service we know and trust today, scaled to a global presence that makes it even easier for us to help our customers grow their businesses around the world.
With the announcement that Jackson Elsegood will be the new Escrow.com General Manager, I took the opportunity to ask him about the new Escrow.com: whether it will change and how Freelancer will improve the already excellent escrow service.
NP: Can you tell us a bit about yourself and your role within the new Escrow.com set up?
Jackson: My role at Escrow.com is to lead the strategic development of our service, coordinate each of our global offices, and make sure our customers get the best possible experience. I have been working very closely with the rest of the team. Previously in my career, I worked in process innovation and led the development of Internet payment gateways. I’m looking forward to bringing that experience to Escrow.com and the domaining community especially.
NP: Are you an active domain name investor, or do you plan to invest in domains?
Jackson: Staff at Escrow.com are not allowed to invest in domains, so unfortunately that’s off limits for me. This rule is all a part of ensuring that staff work completely independently and are able to deal with market sensitive transactions with the absolute highest level of trust.
NP: Why did Freelancer.com decide to acquire Escrow.com?
Jackson: All major global marketplaces today involve payments businesses - eBay have got PayPal, Amazon has Amazon Payments, and Alibaba has AliPay. There is a huge amount of potential to add to the already great services that Escrow.com offers, and Freelancer.com has the scale and expertise to make that vision a reality.
NP: Will Escrow.com continue to operate as a standalone company, or will the company and service be integrated into Freelancer.com’s website?
Jackson: Escrow.com will continue to be run as a standalone company. Jobs on the Freelancer.com marketplace have already been secured and managed with Escrow.com’s services and will continue to do so. In the future, we will be taking a look at how we can make it easier to secure transactions from all our partner marketplaces and Freelancer.com is included in those.
NP: What can Freelancer offer to the already excellent services of Escrow.com?
Jackson: To start with, there will be customer service improvements - moving gradually towards 24/7 multilingual support. Some of our customers would have already experienced this when they connected with a Chinese language support team member or called during our new extended support hours.
Adding additional currencies and payment methods is up next. Freelancer.com currently transacts in 20 major currencies worldwide, and I would like to see Escrow.com meet or exceed that standard.
NP: Do you plan on redesigning the Escrow.com website to make the interface simpler to use for domain buyers and sellers?
Jackson: We want to make sure that what people like about the service stays the same.
We will aim to modernize the existing marketing site with a new one to make it mobile responsive, faster for users around the world, and multilingual (Mandarin and English first). In the future, we will also enhance the key parts of the logged in site to be mobile responsive and improve small parts of the UI to make it easier to use for first time buyers and sellers.
NP: As a service that many NamePros members use regularly, I’m sure they are all interested to know whether there will be any major changes in the service at Escrow.com?
Jackson: The major changes will be on the technology side, and what people like about the service will stay the same. Customer support will be expanded rapidly and even more resources will be dedicated to making the site operate smoothly and intuitively.
NP: Whilst Brandon Abbey was at Escrow.com, many domain investors reached out to him to help customize Escrow transactions or to provide reassurance to nervous buyers. Will this kind of service still be available?
Jackson: Definitely. We put Escrow.com’s office phone numbers at the top of our homepage for anyone to reach us and talk to our staff directly. Keith Gettle, Escrow.com’s Operations Manager, and I are also always available for our customers.
NP: Escrow.com was largely made what it is today by domain transactions and domain investors. Have you (or will you) be listening to feedback from domain investors during your plans to develop the Escrow.com service?
Jackson: I’ve already spoken to a great number of our partners and regular buyers and sellers, and I hope to talk to even more in the coming months. The feedback that our users give us is included in everything that we do, and a lot of their requests and recommendations are already being worked on by our engineering and support team.
NP: If anyone would like to submit feedback to the Escrow.com team, can they do that?
Jackson: Absolutely, feedback is always welcome. We collect feedback at [email protected], or if you’d prefer to email me directly, my email address is [email protected].
NP: What does Freelancer.com hope to achieve at Escrow.com in the next year, the next five years, and the next ten years?
Jackson: The mission for Escrow.com in the future is simple: to continue to be the safest way to transact online. In the coming years, we will make the service faster and easier to use, expand to new offices and languages, and add new currencies and ways to pay. In five and ten years, Escrow.com will still be the service we know and trust today, scaled to a global presence that makes it even easier for us to help our customers grow their businesses around the world.
