The job network

Now is the peak period for job-hopping, partly because many people have just received their year-end bonus from their employers. Li Shanshan, a 26-year-old who works at an international IT company, has been busy with interviews since the Spring Festival.

"I just had an interview last week for a marketing position in a media group, which could double my current salary," Li said.

Li found the job information on Weibo, China's answer to Twitter. She said it was a convenient way to find job openings, since it could give job seekers direct communication with headhunters or the human resources departments of big companies.

Li also registered with some professional social network service (SNS) sites like LinkedIn, in order to "expand business connections and keep updated on potential job openings."

A new challenge

With the development of online recruitment websites, print media advertisements have become a rather old-fashioned method of recruitment. Outsourcing recruitment to online agencies has become a more popular method these days.

51job.com, which started as a recruitment agency focusing on advertisements in the print media, has now grown into the largest online recruitment agency in China. At present, print media only accounts for some 10 percent of its total business.

In the third quarter of 2011, the domestic online recruitment market was worth 570 million yuan ($90.52 million), up some 30 percent year-on-year, according to statistics from Internet consulting firm iResearch.

The country's three major recruitment websites - 51job.com, zhaopin.com and Chinahr.com - account for more than 80 percent of the country's total online recruitment market, said iResearch.

But the growing usage of SNS sites has eaten into the market share of traditional recruitment websites. Statistics from iResearch show that in the third quarter last year, market share of the three major recruitment websites saw a slight drop of 1 percent compared with the second quarter.

"I used to rely on the recruitment websites when I was trying to find a job after graduation, but now I find it very time-consuming because there are too many job-seekers using them and it is hard for me to find the right employer," said Li.

Some believe that SNS sites do a better job in matching job offers with job-seekers.

Maggie Ma, a recruitment consultant at Antal International, told the Global Times that most headhunters and human resources directors have now turned to SNS sites, especially when they are searching for high level or international candidates.

"Almost all human resources directors of the world's top 500 companies are now on LinkedIn, which enables direct communication between recruiters and candidates, by leaving private messages," Ma said.

Vera Xu, a marketing specialist with Antal International, told the Global Times that another challenge for traditional recruitment websites is that users now feel reluctant to upload their information because of safety concerns.

"Some websites might sell users' information to a third party, like an insurance company, which annoys users very much," said Xu.

But on professional SNS sites, personal information should be safe unless the user agrees to share it.

"Though it is not very easy for professional SNS sites to replace traditional recruitment websites at present, they have demonstrated big growth potential," said Zhang Jing, an analyst with iResearch.

Successful model

Currently, LinkedIn has more than 100 million users throughout the world and over 1 million users in China. The website not only offers users information on potential job openings, it also helps professionals to expand their business networks.

In May 2011, LinkedIn floated on the New York Stock Exchange, and its shares more than doubled in their public trading debut.

Its 2011 sales revenue topped $522 million, up 115 percent year-on-year, the company said last week.

Chinese professional SNS sites have also started up in the wake of LinkedIn's success, such as tianji.com, jingwei.com and ushi.com.

Eyeing success in the domestic professional networking market, these sites basically followed the design of LinkedIn. But they have one more thing to appeal to domestic users: they are designed in Chinese.

In July 2011, dajie.com received venture capital of some $10 million, the biggest investment in a professional SNS site in China last year.

Ushi.com, which aims at more qualified users and helps find jobs with salaries of more than 120,000 yuan a year, said that it aims to expand its user base to 2 million this year.

Currently the company has some 700,000 users, mainly people who have worked for more than two years and want to develop their careers.

But Ma from Antal International said that LinkedIn still enjoys the first-mover advantage, and that many professional headhunters and human resources staff are already registered on it.

"It will take time for domestic sites to be recognized. In order to survive the fierce competition, they should find a niche market. Simple duplication will not help," Ma noted.

Large and in charge

Wang Weigang, vice president of zhaopin.com, told the Global Times that his company does not feel threatened by competition from SNS sites.

"Online recruitment websites have accumulated years of experience and recognition, and we know more about the customers," said Wang.

At present zhaopin.com accounts for nearly 30 percent of the online recruitment market, offering more than 1 million job openings to job seekers, according to statistics from iResearch.

"College graduates and job-seekers with two years of professional experience still account for a big part of our customer base, but we will offer more differentiated services in order to meet the demands of more users," he said.

Last year, zhaopin.com and renren.com together launched a LinkedIn-like SNS platform, which aims to serve more experienced job seekers. 51job.com also launched similar social networking services last year.

"Emerging SNS sites have offered brand new hiring solutions for recruiters, but at present they only serve as a supplement to the existing ways. For recruitment websites, the key is to improve user experience, otherwise their market will be further threatened," said Zhang from iResearch.