HotJobs buy helps Monster take on CareerBuilder
The combination of the second and third ranked job boards in the United States comes at a time when many are out of work and looking for a new job. Plus the new tie-up could have a shot at beating number one ranked CareerBuilder.
Monster just inked an agreement with Yahoo to purchase HotJobs. The decision to jettison the job site by Yahoo is part of newish CEO Carol Bartz’s plan to refocus the company on its core portal business.
In addition, Monster will be providing job search content to the Yahoo homepage in a three-year traffic agreement. In addition, Yahoo has agreed not to tread back into the job board market for those three years.
Some might question why Yahoo would want to get out of the job board market considering how lucrative it is. Companies pay large sums per posting to get them listed on these top job boards.
However, the fact is that it takes a whole separate sales force to market job posting packages and agreements with companies. Yahoo’s main focus is on selling display advertising, a wholly different beast than selling to corporate HR departments.
Monster and HotJobs each draw in 14 million and 17 million unique visitors every month respectively per Comscore, while CareerBuilder has an audience of over 21 million visitors per month. While there may be overlap between Monster and HotJobs audiences, the tie-up could give leapfrog Monster past CareerBuilder in having the largest job site audience.
However this is just one part of the equation in terms of the relative strength of these companies. They only make a small portion of their money from their audience and primary derive money from job postings and recruiter accounts on the site.
In terms of the price and must-have status of Monster accounts for major businesses, Monster might have already won the war. However its good to see the company focus on building is audience of job seekers, as ultimately that’s where the company creates value for their customers.
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