Indeed Competitors Analysis - Business Chronicler

Indeed is a job listing website with headquarters in Austin, Texas. Founded in 2004, it allows employers to post job openings and potential employees to search for jobs and apply online. It’s a subsidiary of Japan-based Recruit Holdings, which owns other HR technology and staffing websites like Glassdoor and The CSI Companies Inc.

As the largest job site in the world, Indeed receives over 250 million unique visitors every month from more than 60 countries. It has one of the most sophisticated search algorithms in the job market space and offers a variety of features that make it a go-to destination for job seekers and employers alike. Indeed competes for a share of the Online Recruitment Market with other job boards like Monster, CareerBuilder, and LinkedIn.

While Indeed is the market leader, it’s important to understand the competitive landscape and how other players fare in the space. This Indeed competitors analysis will closely examine the top five competitors by market share, traffic, financials, and core offerings. We’ll’ also look at the competitive advantage Indeed has built and how it plans to maintain its position as the top job site.

Bottom Line Up Front

The online job market is a very saturated and highly competitive space. Indeed stands out as a leader in the industry with its massive scale, sophisticated search algorithm, and strong financial backing from Recruit Holdings. While it does face stiff competition from other well-funded players like LinkedIn and Monster, Indeed has a clear competitive advantage in terms of traffic and job listings.

Top 5 Indeed Competitors

Online Recruitment Market Overview

A 2019 Research by Fortune Business Insight forecasts the global online recruitment market to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 7.1% from 2019 to 2027. As of 2019, the value of the market was $28.68 billion and is expected to reach $43.39 billion by 2027. The major driving factors for the market’s growth are the increased use of social media platforms for recruitment, the rising number of startups, and the growing popularity of cloud-based solutions.

The Covid-19 pandemic had a profound impact on the online recruitment market. Businesses shut down operations and laid off employees in droves, leading to a sharp decline in job postings. However, as economies begin to reopen, companies will start posting jobs again, and perhaps a rebound in the online recruitment market will follow.

Some factors restraining the growth of the online recruitment market include data security concerns, the high cost of online recruitment solutions, and the lack of awareness about these solutions in developing countries. Moreover, the rising number of fraudulent online applications could further hamper market growth.

Indeed Revenue Model and Business Strategy

The segmented nature of the online recruitment market presents an opportunity for Indeed to focus on a specific target audience and build a dominant market position. It aggregates job listings from all over the internet and makes them available to job seekers for free. Employers can also post jobs on Indeed for free, but they have the option to purchase paid advertising packages to promote their listings and improve visibility.

Indeed also makes money through subscription fees, hiring events, and banner ads. Before its acquisition by Recruit Holdings in 2012, Indeed was a private company that raised $5 million in funding from Allen & Company LLC, The New York Times, and Union Square Ventures. Part of its strategy was keeping Indeed free for job seekers while monetizing it by selling ads to employers.

Its revenue growth performance from 2011 to 2015 proves that its strategy is working. The company’s revenues grew at a CAGR of 67% during this period recording $683 million in 2015 and 795 million in 2016. According to Recruit’s financial report, Indeed’s FY2021 revenue was $5.735 billion, with profits amounting to $1.303 billion. The strong financials result from Indeed’s sound business strategy and its dominant position in the online recruitment market.

The simplicity of the platform and the vast amount of listings available make Indeed an attractive option for job seekers. Moreover, the platform’s SEO-friendly design ensures that Indeed jobs are often at the top of search engine results pages (SERPs). The company attributes its growth to its focus on the job seeker experience and its commitment to providing quality data.

See also: Tonal Competitors Analysis

Indeed Competitor Analysis

Indeed competes in a market with well-established players such as Monster, LinkedIn, Glassdoor, ZipRecruiter, and CareerBuilder. It also competes with small, niche job sites focusing on specific markets or industries.

The following is a detailed analysis of Indeed’s main competitors:

1. Monster

Monster is one of the oldest and most well-established online job portals. Founded in 1994, the company was an early mover in the online recruitment market and successfully transitioned from a desktop to a mobile-first platform. Monster’s revenue model is similar to Indeed’s, with the company making money through job postings and banner ads. It’s a subsidiary of Randstad, a Dutch staffing company but operates as an independent entity.

Monster caters to job seekers from all industry sectors and experience levels. The platform offers a wide range of features such as resume writing services, interview tips, and salary comparisons. For employers, it provides access to a vast database of candidates and tools to help them screen and assess candidates.

Indeed’s competition with Monster is intense as both companies are targeting the same job seekers and employers. Monster’s strong brand presence is a trusted name in online recruitment. However, Indeed is a more modern platform with a better user interface and a more user-friendly mobile app. While Monster doesn’t have the same amount of traffic as Indeed, it is still a very popular website, with 188 million visits in 2021.

Monster is part of the Global Business category in the Randstad Group, including other staffing companies such as Randstad SourceRight and Randstad RiseSmart. While the category’s revenue grew by 28% in 2021, Monster’s revenue decreased by a single digit and only experienced growth in the second quarter of the financial year. Indeed’s strong financial performance presents a threat to Monster’s long-term viability.

2. LinkedIn

LinkedIn is a professional networking site that also offers a job board feature. Founded in 2002, LinkedIn has over 774 million members worldwide. While LinkedIn is not as popular as Indeed in job searches, it is a close second, with approximately 63 million unique monthly visitors. LinkedIn’s job board is very similar to Indeed, with a search bar and filters on the left-hand side and job listings on the right.

LinkedIn makes money through job postings, banner ads, and premium subscriptions. LinkedIn’s Premium Subscriptions offer users access to more features such as InMail (a messaging service), who has viewed your profile, and advanced search filters. LinkedIn Recruiter is a paid subscription for employers that gives them access to a larger pool of candidates, advanced search capabilities, and the ability to contact candidates directly.

Indeed’s main competition with LinkedIn is for employers’ recruiting budgets. While LinkedIn is the more popular platform for job seekers, Indeed is more popular with employers. Indeed offers a wider range of features for employers, such as Indeed Analytics and Job PostBoosts (a paid feature that promotes your job listing).

Microsoft’s $26.2 billion acquisition of LinkedIn in 2016 boosted LinkedIn’s resources and access to new technology. Microsoft has continued to invest in LinkedIn, with the platform seeing significant improvements in recent years. The most notable improvement is the introduction of LinkedIn Learning, a subscription-based e-learning platform.

LinkedIn’s revenue grew by 27% in Q42021 to more than $10 billion, driven by strong membership and subscription revenue growth. Given that the $10 billion is only for the fourth quarter of 2021, LinkedIn’s revenue for the full year is likely to be significantly higher. Despite LinkedIn’s high financials and recent improvements, Indeed is still the more popular platform for job seekers and employers.

3. Glassdoor

Glassdoor is Indeed’s sister company operating under the Japanese conglomerate, Recruit. Although Glassdoor is not as popular as Indeed, it’s still a well-known job board with approximately 67 million unique monthly visitors. The Glassdoor website allows current and former employees to review companies and their management anonymously.

The website has a way to verify that each review is from a real person working at the company. In addition to employee reviews, the website also has a job board feature. The Job feature is one of its main revenue generators as employers must pay to post their jobs on the website.

It uses a freemium model, where basic features are free, but employers must pay for premium features, such as boosted job listings and contact information for candidates. Other ways the company makes money include Employer Branding, a service that helps employers improve their employer brand, and Enterprise Solutions, which provides data and insights to help enterprises make better hiring decisions.

Recruit Co., Ltd. acquired Glassdoor for $1.2 billion in 2018 to help it expand its presence in the US and Europe. The acquisition has helped Glassdoor grow its revenue and improve its financials. Before its acquisition, the company had completed ten rounds of funding, raising a total of $204.5 million. While Glassdoor and Indeed are competitors, they are also sister companies, which gives them a unique relationship.

4. ZipRecruiter

ZipRecruiter is an American job board founded in 2010. The company operates as a job aggregator and job board, with employers able to post jobs on the website for free. It has its headquarters in Santa Monica, California, and offices in the UK, Canada, and Australia. More than 110 million people used ZipRecruiter to find jobs, and about 2.8 million businesses used the website to post jobs.

The company started as a job aggregator but soon added a job board to its platform. Its initial intention was to help small businesses find employees, but it has since expanded to help businesses of all sizes. The company makes money in a more differentiated way than Indeed and Glassdoor. Most of its revenue comes from subscription plans for employers.

It also uses a pay-per-click model through the ZipAlerts product. This product allows employers to pay to send their job list to job seekers that match their criteria. Besides these two revenue streams, ZipRecruiter also makes money from selling a white label software called JobBoard.io, where websites can create their own branded job board and access over 8 million jobs from the ZipRecruiter database.

Unlike the competitors named above, ZipRecruiter is a public company. It filed for a direct listing in April 2021 and went public in May 2021. The DPO saw the company’s valuation take a flight to $2.3 billion, with the stock price increasing 17.2% against the reference price of $18 per share. as of July 14, 2022, the company had a market capitalization of $1.926 billion. Its revenue for the fiscal year 2021 was $741 million, up from $418 million in 2020.

While ZipRecruiter enjoys increased visibility and easier access to capital, it also has to deal with more scrutiny from the public markets. Indeed has more robust financials, with $5.735 billion in revenue for 2021, and enjoys the umbrella benefits of being part of Recruit, a Japanese conglomerate.

5. CareerBuilder

CareerBuilder is an American employment website founded in 1995. The company has its headquarters in Chicago, Illinois. As a multilingual website, CareerBuilder offers job seekers a platform to search for jobs in various languages, including English, Spanish, and Chinese. The company doesn’t only offer a job board but also provides other tools and resources to help job seekers with their career search.

The website has a database of more than 150 million candidate profiles and more than 24 million unique visitors monthly. It operates under the umbrella of Apollo Global Management which trades as a publicly traded company on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker APO. While the company isn’t as big as Indeed or Glassdoor, it still has a significant presence in the online job market.

CareerBuilder has managed to tap into different markets and geographies by offering a multilingual platform. The company’s primary source of revenue comes from the sale of job postings to employers. However, it also generates revenue from other products and services such as career coaching, resume writing, and background checks.

Indeed’s main competitive advantage over CareerBuilder is its size. Indeed is the largest job board in the world, with more than 250 million unique visitors every month. This size gives employers a much wider pool of potential candidates. Indeed’s pay-per-click pricing model is more cost-effective for employers than CareerBuilder’s per job posting pricing model.

Indeed SWOT Analysis

Below is a detailed SWOT analysis of Indeed:

Strengths

The high number of unique visitors to the website every month ensures that employers have access to a large pool of potential candidates
The company has strong financials, which gives it the resources to invest in further improving its product offerings
Its parent company, Recruit Holdings, is a well-established player in the HR industry, which gives Indeed a competitive edge
Indeed has a strong brand image which makes it a trusted name among job seekers

Weaknesses

The company is heavily dependent on Google for traffic, making it vulnerable to changes in Google’s algorithm
Indeed has a fairly simple product offering which may limit its ability to attract and retain users
Indeed does not have a strong presence in developing markets, which could limit its growth potential

Opportunities

Indeed can capitalize on the growing trend of mobile job search by investing in further improving its mobile app
There is a growing trend of employers using social media to post job openings, which presents an opportunity for Indeed to capitalize
The rising number of millennials entering the workforce presents an opportunity for Indeed to market itself as a millennial-friendly job search platform

Threats

The company faces stiff competition from other well-established job search platforms such as Monster and LinkedIn
The rise of artificial intelligence in the HR industry poses a threat to Indeed’s business model
Indeed is also vulnerable to economic downturns, as fewer people are likely to be looking for jobs during recessionary periods

Indeed Competitors Analysis (FAQs)

Question: Which is better, ZipRecruiter vs. Indeed?

Answer: ZipRecruiter is a newer company that has quickly gained popularity among job seekers and employers. Indeed is the largest job board in the world, with more traffic and a larger pool of potential candidates. Both platforms have their strengths and weaknesses but Indeed stands out as a more well-rounded option.

Question: What is the difference between Indeed and Glassdoor?

Answer: Indeed is a job board, while Glassdoor is a review site. Glassdoor allows employees to anonymously review their employers, which can be helpful for job seekers who want to get an insider’s perspective on a company. However, Indeed’s sheer size gives it a competitive edge over Glassdoor.

Question: Which is best, LinkedIn or indeed?

Answer: LinkedIn is a professional social networking site, while Indeed is a job board. However, LinkedIn also offers a job board feature, which makes it a more well-rounded option than Indeed. Indeed takes the lead with aggregated data and ease of use, while LinkedIn offers more comprehensive profiles and networking opportunities. Overall, Indeed has more to offer job seekers and employers.

Conclusion

Competing in the online recruitment space is no easy feat. Indeed stands out as a leader in the industry, with a comprehensive job search platform that offers something for everyone. While its competitors offer similar services, Indeed has managed to set itself apart with its user-friendly interface and innovative features. It also enjoys the solid financial backing of Japanese conglomerate Recruit Holdings.

In this Indeed competitor analysis, we took a close look at some of the best-known platforms in the online recruitment space. We looked at Indeed’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Overall, we believe Indeed is a resilient job search market contender and well-positioned to compete against its rivals.

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John Hughes

John Hughes is a seasoned expert in digital marketing strategy, business model analysis, and financial insights. Possessing a robust background in finance, his expertise extends into deciphering complex business models, conducting comprehensive SWOT analyses, and staying attuned to the latest market trends.