The proliferating gig economy relies on online freelance marketplaces, which support relatively anonymous interactions by text-based messages. Informational asymmetries thus arise that can lead to exchange uncertainties between buyers and freelancers. Conventional marketing thought recommends reducing such uncertainty. However, uncertainty reduction and uncertainty management theories indicate that buyers and freelancers might benefit more from balancing, rather than reducing, uncertainty, such as by strategically adhering to or deviating from common communication principles. With dyadic analyses of calls for bids and bids from a leading online freelance marketplace, this study reveals that buyers attract more bids from freelancers when they provide moderate degrees of task information and concreteness, avoid sharing personal information, and limit the affective intensity of their communication. Freelancers’ bid success and price premiums increase when they mimic the degree of task information and affective intensity exhibited by buyers. However, mimicking a lack of personal information and concreteness reduces freelancers’ success, so freelancers should always be more concrete and offer more personal information than buyers do. These contingent perspectives offer insights into buyer–seller communication in two-sided online marketplaces; they clarify that despite, or sometimes due to, communication uncertainty, both sides can achieve success in the online gig economy.

激增的零工经济依赖于在线自由职业市场，该市场支持通过基于文本的消息进行相对匿名的交互。因此出现信息不对称，这可能导致买家和自由职业者之间的交易不确定性。传统的营销思想建议减少这种不确定性。然而，不确定性减少和不确定性管理理论表明，购买者和自由职业者可能会从平衡而不是减少不确定性中受益更多，例如通过战略性地遵守或偏离共同的沟通原则。通过对领先的在线自由职业者市场的投标和投标的二元分析，这项研究表明，当买家提供中等程度的任务信息和具体性、避免共享个人信息、并限制他们交流的情感强度。当自由职业者模仿买家展示的任务信息和情感强度时，他们的投标成功和价格溢价会增加。然而，模仿缺乏个人信息和具体性会降低自由职业者的成功，因此自由职业者应该始终比买家更具体并提供更多的个人信息。这些偶然的观点提供了对双边在线市场中买卖双方沟通的见解；他们澄清说，尽管或有时由于沟通的不确定性，双方都可以在在线零工经济中取得成功。模仿缺乏个人信息和具体性会降低自由职业者的成功，因此自由职业者应该始终比买家更具体并提供更多个人信息。这些偶然的观点提供了对双边在线市场中买卖双方沟通的见解；他们澄清说，尽管或有时由于沟通的不确定性，双方都可以在在线零工经济中取得成功。模仿缺乏个人信息和具体性会降低自由职业者的成功，因此自由职业者应该始终比买家更具体并提供更多个人信息。这些偶然的观点提供了对双边在线市场中买卖双方沟通的见解；他们澄清说，尽管或有时由于沟通的不确定性，双方都可以在在线零工经济中取得成功。