Internet recruiter aims for base of millions

Liepin.com, China's leading Internet-based recruitment service provider, plans to set up a global talent development center with a base of 20 million professionals by the end of 2014, its CEO told China Daily on Tuesday.

The company announced on the same day that it received C-round financing totaling $70 million from equity investment companies Warburg Pincus and Matrix Partners China, which amounts to the largest investment in the sector for the past five years. Liepin.com previously received A- and B-round financing totaling about $10 million from Matrix Partners China. The new funding will be used to set up a global talent development center and promote the company's brand, Chief Executive Officer Dai Kebin told China Daily.

Dai said the company has already signed up 11 million professional staff, and the candidate base will reach 20 million by year-end.

Dai said Liepin.com has more than 100,000 enterprise clients, and each pays the company more than 10,000 yuan ($1,600) annually.

"Our profits mainly come from enterprise clients and employees," said Dai, adding that the fees for enterprise clients are very competitive compared with those charged by traditional recruiters.

A headhunter in China will charge an employer about 20 percent to 30 percent of an employee's annual income, but Liepin.com charges only for a package of services, said Dai.

"Liepin.com will promote the healthy development of the Chinese recruitment services market because we solve the problem of information asymmetry," said Dai. Dai said headhunters who only can provide employees' resumes will be less competitive.

"Warburg Pincus has been following the Internet-based recruitment sector closely in recent years and was impressed with Liepin's unique business model and the changes Liepin has brought to the recruitment sector," said Julian Cheng, a managing director of Warburg Pincus.

Cheng said traditional Internet-based recruitment agencies basically operate as advertisement platforms for employers, but Liepin.com has created an online model that is built around the needs of professionals and members.

"After witnessing the rapid growth of Liepin.com in the past three years, Matrix Partners China is more and more convinced that Liepin's business model is shaking up the current Internet-based recruitment sector and has singled itself out as the one to win," said David Zhang, a founding managing partner of Matrix Partners China.

Zhang said the new investment will help the company improve its vertical platform, which incorporates personal computers, mobile and call center services. That in turn will maximize the value it will provide to its professional members.

According to Zhang, Matrix Partners China favors investing in platform companies, and Liepin.com is a career development platform connecting employers, headhunters and managers, and catering to their recruitment needs.

caixiao@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily USA 04/16/2014 page3)