When Liu Hao quit his job to
take over a failing Internet start-up, his friends thought he was crazy.
At the time, the company was shedding US$70,000 a month and had only
US$250,000 in the bank. Liu's new salary would be less than the taxes he paid on
his previous job as a private equity investor.
Liu Hao, CEO of
Zhaopin.com |
Four years later, sitting in the
Beijing headquarters of that same company, Liu says of his friends' opinions:
"They were wrong."
The Internet startup Liu helped save was Zhaopin.com, China's third largest
online recruitment website. These days, the company has about 9.8 per cent of
China's 11.3 million online job hunters, according to iResearch, a
Shanghai-based research agency specializing in China's Internet market.
A few weeks ago, Seek Limited, Australia and New Zealand's biggest Internet
job site, agreed to buy a 25 per cent stake in Zhaopin for about US$20 million,
giving the company a cash infusion to grow its business in second tier cities.
Seek will not take part in management, according to Zhaopin.
Meanwhile, Zhaopin has launched a search engine that gives more targeted
search results, as well as insider reports on companies for users to evaluate
prospective employers. Liu says his company is the first to introduce such
innovations.
Despite these moves, it's possible Liu's friends could still get the last
word. Zhaopin lags behind 51job.com and ChinaHR.com in a market Liu himself says
is going to be dominated by "two or three players."
In 2005, 51job.com had 37.3 per cent of all users and ChinaHR.com had 13.5
per cent, according to iResearch.
In the end, however, it's not about users, which can post resumes for free,
but the number of recruiters who pay to post job listings.
Liu says Zhaopin's origins as a head hunter a business it still runs under
the name Alliance Consulting Ltd means it has a good relationship with some of
the biggest blue chip companies such as Microsoft Corp and BMW AG.
"We have the better jobs," Liu says. "They're relatively higher paying
positions and they're the kind of employment people in China are aspiring to."
Zhaopin charges recruiters anywhere from 500 yuan (US$63) to 80,000 yuan
(US$10,000) to post on their site.
(For more biz stories, please visit Industry Updates)
