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| BranchOut's new round of funding could heat up competition with LinkedIn |
For investors, it
is a small price to pay: One US dollar for each of BranchOut’s current users.
To CEO Rick Marini; it’s 25-million reasons to sleep better knowing his quest
to take on LinkedIn just got easier.
BranchOut is a
Facebook app that connects professionals through the social media platform and
has grown to 25 million usersin only two years. To put this into perspective,
BeKnown, Monster’s branded version of the same kind of Facebook app (minus the value to recruiters) was launched last June and has about
177,000 users. The new funding brings the company’s total backing to $49
million.
Marini’s explains
his company’s success by first lauding LinkedIn as a great product but noting
it’s not very personal. He describes LinkedIn as a great resource for finding
10-percent of the workforce and compares it to meeting someone at a
professional event for five minutes. He goes on to suggest that Facebook users
are engaged, care about one another on a more personal level and that users
will go out of their way to help one another get a job.
At 150 million
users, LinkedIn is atop the social recruiting and job search ladder. However,
Facebook has an estimated 850 million users; another reason why investors are
willing to fork over that kind of cash. Recent reports that LinkedIn’s valuation may be overstated
by as much as 30-percent and a revised target of $77 per share is more
realistic, may be a cause for a little concern for the juggernaut, but more
likely a bump in the road.
This news brings
me back once again to the subject of job board relevancy and their likely
demise. And before you roll your eyes and fire off an email to ask me why I
hate the job boards or tell me that the boards are relevant and robust, sit
down and have a think on the following five items of interest:
1. People are talking about LinkedIn
and BranchOut. Seriously,
I have not seen or heard from CareerBuilder or Monster in weeks. In fact, the
last mainstream media story I read that grabbed a headline was about how
Monster was laying off hundreds at its Massachusetts headquarters, the story
that sparked this whole debate.
2. Monster and Careerbuilder are
talking about themselves.
Ala Donald Trump, the companies are trying to create their own buzz. Today Monster
announced an investor conference call to
discuss first quarter results and a CareerBuilder press release says the
company bought Brazil’s largest job board today. They also issued another press
release of the results of a study they performed about how hiring
managers are using social media.
3. CareerBuilder released a study
about how hiring managers are using social media. Is there an echo in here? Why would a
job board want to tell people that nearly two out of five hiring managers are
using social media to search for information on job candidates? Although
subtle, the story, the results and the survey seem steer the reader to think of
the dangers of social media more than support social media use. In fairness,
CareerBuilder does great research. Their informational products are robust and
have very insightful, powerful data. Quite possibly, CareerBuilder’s future
will be determined by how well they leverage and manage all of that data. Then
again, if social and professional networks keep gobbling up their market share
of resumes, where are they going to get their data?
4. Numbers don’t lie. The market cap for LinkedIn is $10.71
billion and Monster comes in at $999.83 million. CareerBuilder is harder to
nail down because it is owned by several large media companies and their
collective market caps are not 100-percent attributable to CareerBuilder. An industry analyst suggests a Monster-esque $1 billion
for the company. While I am not a market analyst by profession (nor should my
word be taken as advice), my best guess is that CB lies somewhere between $1.5
and $2 billion based on current market information. Maybe this isn’t a fair assessment
given the point at which each company is in its individual life cycle, but I
would say the numbers are hard to ignore and are evidence to support my point.
That’s what we’re debating right: Company life cycles?
5. Social networks are mobile. Linkedin and BranchOut have engaging
mobile apps with content that brings users to it for more than just social
networking, more than just job search, and more than just information; they are
true social platforms. The job boards
don’t have this kind of staying power and attention share in their mobile apps
since they are currently single purpose.
Boards are losing
market share while social platforms, like the early days of the boards, are
growing exponentially. They too will have a lifecycle. The slightly concerning
aspect of BranchOut is the fact that it runs as a Facebook app. There is
growing industry sentiment that Facebook itself is becoming irrelevant and that
its recent purchase of Instagram is an attempt to regain some relevancy with
users.
Job boards do
have a place. I use them, not mostly nor exclusively, to help find new talent
and industry data. Boards are going to have to find a way to remain relevant
with users and customers, and do so quickly, if they are to survive.
Is there an app
for that?
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