EMPLOYMENT SERVICES PROVIDERS
China - A new contender, China-based shopping website Taobao.com, has emerged in the virtual employment services realm to vie for a share of the recruiting market's fat profit pie.
Taobao has kicked the competition up a notch in the recruitment market by pitting against other big players like 51job.com and Zhaopin.com. It is currently offering job services like the mentioned names in China, reported The China Dailies. Most job posts on Taobao's online portal are from its shopping site's shop owners, but it is confident other companies will start jumping on the bandwagon soon.
Liu Bo, head of Taobao University, the training division of Taobao, believes Taobao will draw competition from other online recruitment service firms in the long run. Recruitment service providers, however, feel the new competitor would not be a threat for them.
Jennifer Feng, public relations director of Nasdaq-listed 51job.com remained confident Taobao will not be a competition. "Employers like to seek employees through different channels, and it's unlikely that Taobao will be able to wean customers from other job sites," she said.
However, as the demand for e-commerce professionals rises due to flourishing online sales deals, Feng said more companies may end up fighting with each other to offer specialised services. She added the vacancies on 51job.com for virtual salesmen have increased by 70% from 2009 and are projected to grow to 130,000 by this year.
Hao Jian, a senior consultant with Zhaopin.com, too said Taobao's services will not affect them, as it is only limited to the e-commerce sector.
Taobao's new online employment platform which consists of 3,700 employers, is currently offering its services for free, though the company reserves the right to charge a fee in the future.
There are now 2,600 job openings on Taobao site, which according to Liu, will soar to 100,000 by the end of 2010.
________________________________________________________
More quality Lighthouse titles
Get your marketing department up to speed with Asia's most read marketing site
marketing-interactive.com
Want to get on the right side of the procurement department?
Direct them to
Procurement Asia
