While corporate India and the entire ecosystem of startups has been fighting the disappointing hiring situation, this vertical has given the online classifieds portal Quikr a reason to celebrate. At the end of the financial year 2017, the QuikrJobs platform broke even. It is considered to be in the unicorn league and has the backing of Tiger Global and Kinnevik AB.
Amit Jain, the head of Quikr Jobs in a statement said, “In March, we broke even at the category level.” Although Quikr has several categories under its jobs umbrella including QuikrJobs (blue collar), Hiree (acquired in 2016 for white collar market entry) and QuikrPro (B2B transaction model between recruitment consultants and hiring clients), QuikrJobs is the primary generator of profit contributing to about 75% of the revenue share.
The company has seen a 3x growth in revenues within its job vertical in the 2017 financial year which it claims is a result of the way it has managed to maintain a “healthy balance” between its recruitment services both online and offline. Jain further added, “That allows us to increase the scope of the profitability because online revenues help (in achieving the goal).” QuikrJobs saw a 50 percent increase in its user base in just the second half of the year, with about 5 million applications per month.
QuikrJobs’ current competitors are AasaanJobs and BabaJob in the blue collar space. According to industry experts, the lead in the blue collar space is primarily as a result of Quikr’s focus on a clear product and this enables higher traction for the portal.
The online classifieds industry is currently estimated at ₹2500-3000 crores with its biggest revenue being generated by jobs, real estate, and matrimony. The industry is expected to clock a CAGR of 22% to touch ₹7,700 -7,900 crore by 2020, according to a report published by KPMG in September 2016.
It has further been added that the size of the blue-collar business in the jobs market is small and is quite unorganized with not too many players. This has made it easy for QuikrJobs to have a significant impact.
In the white collar space, however, Quikr competes with Naukri.com, the current market leader and LinkedIn — who form the biggest share of the market in this area. The revenue of this industry is based on listings and subscriptions-based model. The operator of Naukri.com Info Edge posted 531.2 crores for its recruitment business compared to Quikr’s 95 crores in the 2016 financial year. Experts believe that because of Naukri.com’s main focus on the white collar business, QuikrJobs has been able to stay ahead in the blue-collar business.
Analysts have explained that while QuikrJobs’ significant mark on the blue collar jobs market has been noted, it is going to be difficult for Quikr to move ahead and have a similar effect in the white collar business.
