Our good friend and Job Board Summit keynote speaker Randy Reece from Avondale Partners has provided us some market insights after the Q1 results from LinkedIn and Indeed were reported.
It is safe to say that these two business have become the “powerhouse” of the industry, Randy comments “Indeed had a phenomenal March quarter, reaching revenue of ¥25.6 billion (US$222 million). Revenue grew 82% Y/Y in USD.
Last 12 months, Indeed recorded revenue of $706 million (64% growth). Year-over-year comparisons had been running below 60% growth prior to the impressive March 2016 quarter.”
Keith Robinson, industry commentator adds “It’s also well documented that Indeed are starting to pivot their model from a pure play aggregator into a “solutions” business and the recent launch in the U.S of their Indeed Hire will provide another revenue line.”
The high-growth leaders, Indeed and LinkedIn, had $725 million revenue in the first calendar quarter of 2016, up 40% Y/Y.
Graphic 1 – Indeed v LinkedIn Hiring Solutions
Randy also looked at the performance of the big three legacy job boards, “SEEK does not report quarterly results, only semi-annual. We expect the trio to keep revenue stable in 2016, led by Asian growth from SEEK. SEEK looks better in native currency; Aussie vs. US$ translation impairs the recent growth in US$ terms.”
Graphic 2 – Monster, Seek, CareerBuilder
Avondale research also showed that “LinkedIn + Indeed surpassed the big three in revenue during 2015. We estimate that LinkedIn + Indeed will combine for 1.7x greater revenue than the old big three in 2016. Indeed had slightly more than $600 million revenue in calendar 2015, and we project $1 billion in 2016.”
A final comment from Randy shows the incredible performance of both business “LinkedIn was the first recruitment advertising/marketing company in history to reach $1 billion revenue, and Indeed is on track to become the second”.
A final comment from Robinson “ both businesses have delivered these performances in a highly competitive and increasingly fragmented “solutions” market and in doing so have provided that a “product” brand and marketing approach, well executed can/will work.
“Stop Press” Since Randy wrote this we have seen the demise of one of the early aggregators, SimplyHired, much has been written and speculation is rife. All we can say is it’s a shame for the staff and those who put so much hard work in. Is it a negative for the broader aggregation space? No, but what it does highlight is how competitive the recruiting market is today and will continue to be.
Keith Robinson
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