Jobs site reveals monster ambitions

Jeff Taylor: A mixture of east coast and west coast

By Emma Clark BBC News Online business reporter

The founder of Monster.com, Jeff Taylor, certainly fills the role of internet entrepreneur.

He wears black-rimmed specs, he is relaxed and he sports a healthy Californian glow.

How Monster makes money

Employers pay to post jobs (55% of revenue)

Employers pay to search CV database (33% of revenue)

Employers buy adverts and sponsor areas of site

It is a surprise therefore to discover that he comes from Boston, not the sunny west coast much beloved of US webbies.

His company Monster.com is also a bit of an anomaly.

It is was launched in 1994 - well before the wave of dot.com start-ups - and it has been making money for four years.

In the most recent quarter, ending in March, Monster pulled in $131m (£90m) in revenue, making a profit of 25%.

"We weren't late to the party," says Mr Taylor, musing on the dot.com collapse of spring 2000.

"We started the party."

Party on

Mr Taylor, who owned a small recruitment and advertising agency in Boston when he set up Monster, decided to sell up just over 18 months later in November 1995.

The buyer was the offline recruitment firm, TMP Worldwide.

Monster came into 'full bloom' under TMP

"TMP had been trying to buy my ad agency so I said I would only sell it if they started a new division," he says. "I gave them Monster."

It was a smart move for both parties. Monster obtained the resources and sales force it needed to grow, and soon started to drive profits within TMP.

"Monster came to full bloom within the TMP structure," says Mr Taylor.

Monster.com now generates 75% of TMP's profit, while employing only 12% of the parent company's 11,000-strong workforce.

Online, offline

The decline of Monster's pure-play competitors, such as Norway-based Stepstone and GraduateBase, certainly suggests that offline partnerships were the way to go.

"I would guess that Monster had access to TMP's client list," says Tim Roe, senior analyst at internet research company Nielsen.

It is only a matter of time before there is a change in the recruiting habit of companies

Jeff Taylor

"The costs to Monster were probably less than for Stepstone. And Monster was able to piggyback off the TMP business."

Mr Taylor, who remains chairman of Monster and global director of interactive for TMP, can recite endless figure to prove the pedigree of his site.

Monster boasts 17 million CVs (or resumes) in its worldwide database and attracts about 25,000 new CVs each day.

In Europe and the UK, Monster is invariably among the top three players in online recruitment, according to data from Nielsen/Net Ratings.

 Click here to see rankings of online recruiters

Bitter rivals

Across in the US, Monster and HotJobs.com, now part of Yahoo, jockey for top position in different reports prepared by Jupiter Media Metrix.

HotJobs has long been a bitter rival and a bone of contention for Monster.

Taylor believes more companies will use the web to recruit

"HotJobs existed to hate Monster," recalls Mr Taylor, his leg jigging with nervous tension.

In the middle of 2001, the climate changed after HotJobs' chief executive exited, prompting a takeover bid from Monster.

However, Yahoo pipped Monster to the post, stealing HotJobs from under its nose with a counter offer of $436m in December 2001.

Initially Mr Taylor denies that he was disappointed, but adds a moment later: "Any disappointment was that HotJobs represented one natural way to build momentum."

Monster's consolation prize was the purchase of Sweden's Jobline site in the summer of 2001, which pushed it up the rankings in Europe.

"Not doing HotJobs bolstered our European presence," says Mr Taylor.

Rational thinking

During the bleak months of the economic slowdown, Monster was forced like other sites to cut costs and staff - reducing expenses by $110m last year.

Up to 15% of the workforce was slashed, though Mr Taylor argues that much of this was driven by consolidation, following various acquisitions.

But Mr Taylor's enthusiasm for his industry remains undimmed.

During the slowdown, Monster spent the most ever on marketing in a bid to seal its first-mover advantage, he says.

"We are headed for the worst labour shortage over the next decade," says Mr Taylor.

"It is only a matter of time before there is a change in the recruiting habit of companies."

Recruitment revolution

Mr Taylor believes that all major companies will inevitably turn to the web and searchable databases of CVs to find their candidates.

The more traditional blue-chip employer might be slow to embrace change, he concedes, but argues that the efficiencies of using the internet will win through.

If nothing else, the sheer volume of candidates using the internet to find jobs should lure employers across.

Some 4.6 million people visited recruitment sites across Europe in March 2001.

A year later, this figure had increased to six million, says Mr Roe.

Unsettling

Monster is also betting on a rise in employee confidence, with the expected tightening in the labour market.

The site has built its $150m marketing campaign - spearheaded by Mr Taylor - on championing the rights of the jobseeker.

"We are the aspirational brand for careers," he says. "Never settle, it is human nature to explore ourselves."

Mr Taylor's own restless pursuit of market share certainly seems to have served him well so far.

In the uncertain world of internet start-ups, Monster has carved a middle way with help of TMP - and made some money to boot.

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