Jobstreet wins Singapore deal

By Karamjit Singh

Last November, JobStreet.com announced that it had won a tender to supply the Singapore government with an online recruitment service worth S$134,000 (RM325,000) over a period of two years. 

For JobStreet, it was a significant win.  The deal enhances JobStreet's credibility in the Singapore market.  "It was a very competitive bid and to win it against global players just shows the government's trust in us," says CFO Gregory Poarch.

There could also be potential upside in the deal as it will give the company the opportunity to work with about 100 government bodies in Singapore, each of which will have different recruitment needs. 

While Singapore looks good, JobStreet is still behind the market leader, JobsDB.com.

It is also trying harder in China, where it has indirect exposure through its 17% stake in 104 Corp, the leading Taiwanese online recruitment company.  "It is the dominant player in the Taiwanese market and have been in operations since around the time we started in Malaysia," says CEO Mark Chang. 

With so many Taiwanese companies operating in China, 104 Corp has a firm foothold in mainland China, JobStreet has already established itself as a "strong No 1" in the Philippines.  The booming business process outsourcing and contact centre industry there is estimated to create one million new jobs over the next five years. "That's good for our business," says Poarch.

Indeed, with JobStreet only collecting money from companies which post job listings on its website, it is easy to see why it likes its Philippines business.  JobStreet set up in the Philippines about four years after Malaysia and has almost two million users there (meaning resumes posted on its Philippine site) and has about 70% market share, says Poarch.

JobStreet's definition of users is when someone registers on the site, posts his or her resumes and creates a profile of what jobs they would be interested in, and they must leave an email ID where JobStreet can reach them should it find a job match.  But if the email bounces or is full, JobStreet does not consider them a registered user, explains Poarch.  Typically it has 10% of its user base actively seeking jobs, but Poarch notes that in December, this goes down to almost zero as people are waiting for their bonuses.

How has the recession impacted this business?

The company was fortunate to have a near-record cash position and this allowed it to expand while others were scaling down or going into defensive mode. 

It began to see a recovery in companies hiring since last March.  In total, JobStreet had about 5.7 million users at the beginning of 2009 and ended the year with almost 6.8 million users. 

This large number is akin to the circulation of a newspaper which keeps attracting companies to post their listings with JobStreet, notes Poarch.

"It is not a very sexy model but it works for us."  Mark Chang couldn't have put it better.

The Edge Malaysia
January 11, 2010