Samasource

FAQ

 

1)    What is Samasource?

 

Samasource offers a range of content creation and data enhancement services to leading enterprise customers, including Internet companies and research institutions, through our global work distribution technology. A non-profit social enterprise based in San Francisco, our model uses microwork to create sustainable livelihoods for people living in poverty.

 

2)    What kind of work do you do?

 

Samasource’s standard services include:

 

High-quality image captioning
Content writing and editing
Product cataloguing
Database enhancement and verification
Web-based research
We also offer custom enterprise solutions:
High-volume book, document and receipt digitization
Audio and video transcription
OCR correction

 

3)    Who are your clients, and what kind of business have you done for them?

 

We have worked with over 75 consumer Internet and data companies in Silicon Valley, Los Angeles, New York and London. For a full list of client references, check out our clients page or read our case studies.

 

4)    How big are you?

 

Samasource offers a dedicated, trained global workforce of over 2,000 agents at 16 delivery centers in South Asia, East Africa, and the Caribbean. Our sales, account management, and engineering teams in San Francisco and Nairobi include 20 staff. To date, we have raised over $3M in funding from the following organizations:

 

Rockefeller Foundation
Ford Foundation
EBay Foundation
Peery Foundation
Mulago Foundation
Google Grants
Cisco Corporation
Facebook Fund
Stanford Social Enterprise Challenge
US State Department

 

5)    How does it work?

 

A dedicated Samasource Account Manager loads your project into our technology platform, the SamaHub, which breaks down work into individual tasks. Workers at delivery centers across Samasource’s network are selected and qualified through the SamaHub, and receive tasks. After they are done, Samasource compiles the work, applying multiple layers of quality assurance, and delivers it to the client. Quality assurance is highly tailored to the project requirements, and includes both automated and human review. Samasource handles all payment, accounting, staffing, worker training and management, so you can focus on your business.

 

6)    Why are you a non-profit?

 

We believe a company can serve customers and workers, operate a sustainable business against a bottom line, and generate positive social returns as a non-profit.

 

We are driven by our social mission to reduce poverty by providing dignified, technology-based work to hard-working but marginalized people. As a non-profit, our legal structure ensures that we maintain our mission with our workers, while growing an organization capable of sustaining itself through earned income.

 

Our head office staff all come from highly competitive for-profit work environments – finance, management consulting, and interactive agencies – and bring that work ethic and training to our business operations.

 

7)    How do I know Samasource treats workers equitably?

 

As a non-profit, our goals are aligned with those of our workers: to provide fair and dignified work to marginalized people. We achieve our mission by investing substantially in worker training and development, paying living wages, and regularly conducting impact surveys and studies.

 

8)    Can marginalized workers in developing countries really do this work?

 

Absolutely – our workers have at least high school diplomas in English, are avid users of technology, and are highly motivated to escape poverty and improve their lives. In Kenya, where 72% of the population is under the age of 30 and 95% of youth are literate, college-educated people face up to 70% unemployment. The vast majority of motivated workers in these communities lack dignified job opportunities. We believe work is at the core of human dignity, and everyone deserves a chance.

 

9)    Where are your delivery centers located?

 

Our biggest presence and our focus for growth this year is East Africa, where we have six delivery centers and are growing rapidly. We also maintain centers in South Asia and the Caribbean.

 

10) Why should I work with Samasource?

 

Save your company time and money while doing good. Our dedicated, motivated workforce is trained specifically for your project, managed locally and in real time from the head office. Through our work platform, we have the ability to train, qualify workers, and assure quality on 100% of submissions on our platform.