Seek Vs. Trademe

So the online job board war in NZ is looking to take off soon as Trademe has announced that recruitment advertising is their next target. I'm a big supporter of Seek and admire them for their focus on getting their brand out in front of candidates, which is really what the job boards main focus should be.

The reality is the average job seeker is not looking for brand new tools to help them find a job, and the average employer and recruiter aren't really looking for tools to screen candidates. Both sides want a good group of strong options to choose from, especially in a candidate-short market where job seekers get multiple options anyway, while employers have to fight to get multiple candidate choice. As long as Seek continues to be foremost in the candidates' vision with their widespread advertising campaign, I think they will be able to offer value to both parties.

With that in mind though, it means Trademe should really be able to compete. They have huge coverage in NZ and with the opportunity to offer target marketing to their customers (wouldn't you love to serve up "Sales Executive" job ads to people looking to buy books about Sales?), I'm really keen to see what they come up with as an offering.

On another note, I'm kind of surprised at Sam Morgan's quote at the bottom of the article: "The internet space is changing really rapidly and we are continuing to hire people in their 20s who can try to inform us about what is happening on the Web". So if you aren't in your 20s you can't know what is going on on the Internet? Knowing the NZ media, he was probably misquoted. Not a good look though.

Comments

[Hankins Parichabutr]

I think Trademe have more than a good shot at giving Seek a run for their money. Not only Seek, but I'd imagine NZ's other job board search4jobs.co.nz (now http://search4jobs.nzherald.co.nz/, formerly netcheck.co.nz, bought by APN) will be quaking in their boots. I don't know what search4jobs numbers are now but formerly as netcheck they were advertising themselves as receiving 50,000 unique visitors per month. Not a lot.

For starters - Trademe hardly have to advertise because they already have the audience of choice - practically every NZ web surfer! So like Sam says they can just put it up there and are guaranteed exposure. Any early successes can be splashed, well, all over the Trademe website again - and kiwis will probably just like it since it's easy, it's Trademe, and won't cost too much.

The danger will be putting something up that doesn't work or leaves something to be desired. This shouldn't be a problem with his 50+ strong team of 20-somethings now should it ! I have no doubt the Trademe job board will be a success. It could very well compete with Seek for the spot of top job board in New Zealand and I think will easily surpass APN's search4jobs.

If they stick to their strengths the interface will be clean and jobs will be easy to find - much like you can browse items for sale ... "in your area" and "other jobs like this" perhaps.

Interesting developments will be to see :
1. If they move into Seek's home turf and launch in Australia.
2. How much they try and crossover jobs with the auctions - given what they've done with properties and cars i wouldn't think very much but you never know!
3. A long way off, but whether - as you say - they will take the nod from Murdoch and manage to become New Zealand's own "Google".

[Steven Kempton]

Thanks for the comments and great points. I do believe that Trademe can blow both Search4jobs and Seek out of the water in NZ. I believe they will stick to their strengths in terms of usability as you said, and I think they will be both very competitive price-wise and will have a strong advantage with regards to how they can leverage their huge traffic. While there isn't a lot of crossover between buying a car and a new house, there is definitely crossover between searching for houses and "jobs in the area" type cross-marketing ideas. There is also the attractive opportunity to have PPC model for advertising jobs near certain priced houses in certain areas for both employers and recruitment firms.

I wonder if they would bother with Australia though. They wouldn't have the same "free" marketing advantage that they have in NZ so that might put them off. I was at a conference where one of the Trademe guys spoke and it seemed to me that they would prefer to dominate one market rather than just be a player in many. That seemed to be one of the reasons why they stopped allowing international sellers to sell on Trademe.