Published on April 22nd, 2010 | by Saurabh Pandey

David and The Goliaths of the Job portals!

Question: Why would you want to launch a job portal in a market which is already dominated by 2 mammoths who control over 80% of the market both in terms of traffic and resumes?

Answer: Precisely why!

Both the portals are huge and overlapping, offer similar services , own similar resumes and display similar openings.

This signifies that:

1. there is a clear need for differentiation.

2. Due to the lack of differentiation people have no choice but to flock to the 2 big players.

Question again: Who is the winner in this market?

The one with the largest repository of resumes?

Answer: Maybe not! If that was the case the market share gap (in terms of traffic)
between naukri and monster would not have been so huge.

Times jobs with such huge investments and claims of highest volume of active resumes
is still number 3 in terms of traffic share.

I am taking traffic share as an indicator of popularity and hence measuring all the top 3 job portals on this plank. (Comscore 2009)

We also spoke to many employers and job seekers and found a few revealing aspects of usage behaviour:

1. Employers are willing to shift to a player which is more performance oriented both in terms of quality and efficiency (time taken to post a job, payment method, time taken to get candidate response etc.)

2. Candidates want a great CV as a first impact opportunity, but do not want to pay and are hesitant to use a webcam to create a video CV.

3. Candidates do not restrict their job search to job portals but also social media. Facebook, twitter and linkedin are fast becoming hunting ground for both employers and job seekers

I think the way to succeed in this market is by creating and capturing value for both parties
– employers and job seekers- SIMULTANEOUSLY. The value should be clear and relevant as also should impart differentiation.

Based on user feedback we presented the following compelling value propositions

Employers:

1. Post as many jobs as they wantfor Free

2. Don’t wait for candidates to apply- bixee’s smart match technology will push matching candidates in seconds after posting a job

3. Get to see complete CVs Free (without name and contact details)

4. Pay only for the CVs that you want to contact

5. Showcase your company through a multimedia enabled microsite Free.

While you can see 5 points above the major value and differentiator is Pay for Performance.

So far employers were paying anything between Rs.500-900 for a single job posting, irrespective of
whether they receive any CV or not.

In our case they pay only for worthwhile CVs. No risks. I thinks this is a great differentiator.

Employees:

1. Create a multimedia Resume for Free. If you got a certificate, scan and integrate with your CV,

If you made a great presentaion or whitepaper, integrate via slideshare, if you have spoken somewhere
integrate a video, even if you haven’t you can always showcase an ad commercial that as a team member you created.

I think given a choice every person can find a multitude of things that he/she can showcase.

Take a look at my CV at http://bixee.com/saurabhpandey

2. Get a Free vanity URL, and be able to share your profile via, Social network and email

3. Get Real Time Jobs- We know that job seekers are on facebook, linkedin and twitter. We also know that
employers are also on these networks hunting the right candidates and pushing job openings.

On bixee- job seekers can search jobs which are being tweeted on twitter minute by minute.

I guess all the features above add immense value for both job seekers and employers to do the transactions on bixee

With this initiative we have launched a few firsts in India like:

1. India’s 1st multimedia CV

2. India’s first Real Time Jobs

3. One of India’s early (not the first) pay for performance model for employers

and also interestingly Bixee is one of the very few online portals that staretd micropayments as early as January 2010. Employers can actually buy one single contact at a price of only Rs 29/-.

I believe that once we reach a threshold of users the revenue stream through micropayments will be very huge. Remember one CV can be contacted by many employers, and hence owing to this overlap and a small price-this model can become very attractive and huge.

Apart from the above there are 2 more monetization model which have not been properly exploited:

1. Brand Advertising with engagement and performance parameters(cannot reveal more as of now) and

2. Mobile monetization ( i have a few ideas, need to think more)

Let me also admit that this a humble begining, and I have immense respect for what India’s
no.1 job portal has achieved so far-so this post is not about how smart one is or not. This was to share
real life thought process and how we are trying to create value and differentiation in a market where we feel differentiation and re-creation of value can disrupt the network effect of the no.1 player.

The other objective of this post is to listen from you on what else can be done, I am sure I can
do with advice on many things that I have missed so far.

Ending this post with a hope that you will check out www.bixee.com and also revert with your feedback
and advice.

Look forward to listening from you!