No more elbow room
Competition among job platforms on the Internet has grown enormously in the last two years
Competition among job platforms on the Internet has grown enormously over the last two yearsThose were the days in 1996 when SwissWebjobs and Humanline were able to work the online job market without much competition. Today, there are around 70 platforms offering their services on the data highway. Currently, around 15 to 30 million Swiss francs are spent each year on job searches via the Internet, with an annual increase of 100 percent. Experts believe that in a few years almost half of the annual CHF 500 million spent on print advertising will be shifted to the web. "The newcomers to the market, such as Jobline and Stepstone, will not have an easy time catching up with the old players, Jobs.ch, Topjobs.ch, Jobscout and Jobpilot," says Daniel Moschin, CEO of Jobpilot, with conviction. Mark Sandmeier, Head of Marketing and Sales at Jobs.ch, also speaks of a market shakeout before the end of 2001. Meanwhile, Stepstone is countering with the announcement of a new platform for 40 million euros and is investing heavily in TV advertising. Print publishers are also clearly getting involved in the battle for online ads with their own platforms.
A first prominent victim is to be mourned
While some are able to address a certain job segment, such as management positions, with services covering the entire spectrum of personnel recruitment, internationality and focus, others offer attractive conditions. For example, Jobclick, the job platform of NZZ, Basler Mediengruppe, Edipresse and Publigroupe, offers the simultaneous placement of print and web advertisements.
However, there are already the first victims in the bidding for the favor of job providers: The Scout Group, majority-owned by the BHS Group, is to take over London-based Topjobs, which has a well-established subsidiary in Switzerland. Topjobs became illiquid two years after its lucrative IPO. Christopher Nokes, CEO of Topjobs Switzerland, admits that it was an expensive learning curve. Accompanied by immense advertising campaigns, branches were set up in the USA and Australia - and closed again with massive losses.
It remains to be seen whether and who will suffer a similar fate. What is certain is that the positions will be taken this year.
Carmen Gasser
A first prominent victim is to be mourned
While some are able to address a certain job segment, such as management positions, with services covering the entire spectrum of personnel recruitment, internationality and focus, others offer attractive conditions. For example, Jobclick, the job platform of NZZ, Basler Mediengruppe, Edipresse and Publigroupe, offers the simultaneous placement of print and web advertisements.
However, there are already the first victims in the bidding for the favor of job providers: The Scout Group, majority-owned by the BHS Group, is to take over London-based Topjobs, which has a well-established subsidiary in Switzerland. Topjobs became illiquid two years after its lucrative IPO. Christopher Nokes, CEO of Topjobs Switzerland, admits that it was an expensive learning curve. Accompanied by immense advertising campaigns, branches were set up in the USA and Australia - and closed again with massive losses.
It remains to be seen whether and who will suffer a similar fate. What is certain is that the positions will be taken this year.
Carmen Gasser
