2013: the job board year in review

So another year has come and gone. Amazingly enough, job boards aren’t dead (but if you feel the urge to write about it anyway, here’s a handy guide). There’s been a surprising amount of activity in this relatively mature industry, including lots of new companies, funding, acquisitions, and mergers. Don’t believe me? Keep reading about 2013 – the job board year in review:

January

• Facebook announces Graph Search: Facebook’s new search tool, Graph Search, is designed to take a precise query and give you an answer, rather than links that might provide the answer. Some say it is the future of recruiting. Now where have we heard that before?
• CareerCloud launches Social Resume: CareerCloud, the latest venture from job board veteran Chris Russell, has launched Social Resume. The platform lets a job seeker take information from LinkedIn, Facebook, and other social networking sites, then consolidate it in one publicly visible page.
• TheLadders ‘reinvents’ job search: TheLadders has released a number of new mobile offerings, including “TheLadders Scout”, which summarizes the qualifications of other job seekers who already have applied to the job-listing of interest. Yeah, right.
• A bunch of sites launch: Many sites get started, including TalentSprocket, Revl, BetterWeekdays, JobFig, Railyo, ReqCloud, and  3Desk.

February

•  Monster sells ChinaHR (and gives up trying to sell itself): Monster officials announced the sale of most of its stake in ChinaHR, and said the company had pulled out of Brazil, Mexico, and Turkey. In related news, revenue was up, but profit was down.
• TheLadders gets sued: Candidate-pay site TheLadders is being sued in a New York federal court on allegations that the company promises users access to exclusive high-paying jobs that don’t actually exist.
• Gild gets some more gold: Gild just completed its Series A financing totaling $8 million. Gild scours the web for information on developers, including their public code and contributions to developer forums, and then utilizes patent-pending algorithms to score the skills of the millions of developers it finds.

March & April

• CareerBuilder Acquires Oil and Gas Job Search: CareerBuilder purchased Oil and Gas Job Search, headquartered in Manchester, England, and the oil and gas industry’s leading online job site outside North America.
• Dice meets earning expectations: Dice reported that it earned 12 cents a share on $50.4 million of revenue, which put it mostly in line with what Wall Street was expecting and what the company predicted in January. It also projected Q2 earnings at $2M less than previous expectations. A slowdown? Dice also added Shravan Goli as President of Dice to guide Dice, ClearanceJobs and the Slashdot Media brands.
• LinkedIn acquires mobile news reader: LinkedIn continued its acquisition-oriented spring by purchasing Pulse, a mobile platform for viewing news items, for $90 million. Another Facebook-like step?

May & June

• JobBoardDoctor adds Supplier resource: Hey, things sometimes happen here, too!
• LinkedIn beats revenue numbers – but stock still falls: Although LinkedIn managed to beat revenue and profit estimates for Q1 2013, Wall Street didn’t like the guidance for Q2. Some folks are never satisfied.
• eQuest gets some big numbers: eQuest says that its collection of job board and social media candidate performance statistics reaches 1.25 billion.
• eHarmony moving into the job board and/or matching world: The pioneering online dating site eHarmony has announced plans to launch a job site in 2014 that focuses on the ‘fit’ between companies and candidates, based on detailed information about both.

July & August

• A bunch more sites and services launch: Keeping the innovation going, we see new sites/services from  Throng,  KROW,  Pingsta,  Jobylon,  Jahbly,  Whitsy,  HireArt,  Gozaik, and  Foosle.
• Indeed moves into Germany: As previously predicted when the aggregator was purchased last year, Indeed has moved into new foreign markets – Germany, specifically. It opened an office in Dusseldorf.
• RealMatch picks up some real funding: RealMatch, a job board software and network company, has raised $7 million in Series C capital financing. Expect to see this money fund more marketing and R&D.
• eQuest releases job posting tool: The job posting distributor eQuest has released Post-Scheduler, a tool which analyzes a job posting and then determines which day and time it should be posted for best results.

September & October:

• LinkedIn gets sued: The latest installment of disgruntled customers fighting back: LinkedIn is the target of a federal class action lawsuit. The accusers claim that LinkedIn hacked users’ email address books and then sent spam messages. LinkedIn also unveils Recruiter Mobile and Mobile Work With Us, two popular desktop services adapted for on-the-go use.
• Bright gets some more money: Bright.com has nabbed $14 million in funding from Toba Capital and other investors.
• Stepstone picks up 9 German job boards: European online jobs marketplace StepStone has acquired hotel, catering and tourist industries’ job board YourCareerGroup, which specialises in German-speaking markets.

November & December:

•  JobsInLogistics acquires Net-Temps: It’s a case of two industry veterans becoming one – Don Firth’s JobsInLogistics has purchased Net-Temps, one of the earliest job boards.
• Beyond gets a patent: When JobFox sold its assets to Beyond, they also apparently conveyed a patent for ‘talent communities’.
• Dice reports Q3 revenue up 10%: Dice’s Q3 revenues of $52.6 million represented a year over year increase of 10%. Net income was down, however.
• Indeed expands: After launching their office in Ireland in March 2012 with 100 employers, Indeed is now planning to add another 100. Where next?

Well – that’s the job board year in review! You can hardly say the year was boring. Wonder what’s happening next?

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