Emptor’s role supporting the gig economy during a global pandemic - Emptor

With 650 million people staying at home through Latin America, without a doubt we are facing one of the greatest health challenges of recent years, bringing along the fall of economies and thousands of temporary layoffs; however, it is also during these unprecedented times that we are experiencing the surge of opportunities and exponential growth of certain industries seeking to fulfill the needs caused by this ‘new normal’.

## Exponential Growth

“Downloads of delivery apps in Latin America has skyrocketed to more than 250,000 downloads from February to March,” according to Sensor Tower. With face-to-face interactions limited to a minimum, consumers have changed the way they acquire food from restaurants and purchase groceries.

Mobile app downloads, however, are not the only impressive metric surrounding gig-economy startups looking to control the delivery industry in the region. The increase in demand combined with the loss of jobs has flooded some delivery companies with hundreds of job applications. The Brazilian food delivery unicorn, iFood, declared that in February they received 85,000 job applications and in March 175,000 applied to join them, according to Reuters. Meanwhile, Colombian unicorn Rappi increased its number of couriers to 300,000 according to Contxto.

## The Challenge of Growth

This explosive growth brings with it great logistical challenges as it took us by surprise; people and companies have had to adapt on the go.

> "We had an almost overnight growth of more than 300%, this led us to have a challenge in terms of logistics operation and in terms of the stock we had in inventory."  
> – Ricardo Weder, CEO of Jüsto

Oskar Hjertonsson, CEO of Cornershop, pointed out how their product transitioned from a “nice-to-have” into a “must-have”:

>This pandemic has, in many cases, brought out the best in us, and the gig-economy startups in the region are working harder than ever to enable people, especially older adults and those that face more risk to stay at home and reduce the spread of the virus. But at the same time, they are also focusing their efforts on keeping the quality of their services that made millions of users throughout Latin America choose their applications in the first place. It is because of this that we will witness the development and implementation of new processes and technologies both internally and in the form of strategic alliances that will streamline processes and reduce costs.

## Can Companies Hire Safely While Scaling Faster Than Ever?

Latin America is one of the most affected regions by fraud and identity theft, and now that companies are moving to hiring remotely, doing so safely while at the same time trying to scale quickly and meet demand will be a big challenge.

In the last few years, the companies that use Emptor to streamline their onboarding processes have carried out more than 7,000,000 identity verifications and background checks, across 9 Latin American countries. Allowing clients to know if a candidate is qualified or not in just a couple of seconds.

Having helped a wide range of companies onboard thousands of employees, Emptor is here to help. Whether you want to know more about hiring safely or how we can provide trust to your organization and customers, make sure to contact us.