Social networking site eyes recruitment market

Tianji.com, the Chinese subsidiary of Paris-based professional social network Viadeo, told the Global Times Thursday that its parent company has raised funds worth $32 million, about one-third of which will be invested in the Chinese market.

The investment, from several sources including the French Sovereign Fund, Allianz and some Middle Eastern private funds, will be used to accelerate Tianji's business growth in the Chinese market, as well as other non-English speaking markets, according to Viadeo.

"About 33 percent of the funds raised this time will be injected into the Chinese market, to upgrade technology, strengthen product development, enhance sales and marketing teams, and for possible acquisition projects," Lin Tinghan, CEO of tianji.com, told the Global Times Thursday.

Lin said the Beijing-based professional social network service (SNS) website, which targets mid- to high-level professionals who are usually not active in the job market, can create potential job openings for them, which traditional recruitment websites are not capable of.

"Professional SNS websites can facilitate the exchange of detailed and timely information between job-seekers and employers," Zhang Jing, an analyst with Internet consulting firm iResearch, told the Global Times Thursday, noting that such kind of advantage has created a big development space for SNS sites.

Tianji.com said it added 100,000 to 500,000 new users per month last year, with the total current member base of 10 million.

Lin said Tianji is aiming to become the Chinese version of LinkedIn.

LinkedIn, which has more than 100 million users worldwide and over 1 million users in China, floated on the New York Stock Exchange last May and its shares more than doubled on debut.

Professional SNS sites such as tianji.com, jingwei.com and dajie.com began to appear in China last year in the wake of the success of LinkedIn.

In July 2011, dajie.com received venture capital of some $10 million, the biggest investment in a professional SNS site in China last year.

"However, given that the traditional recruitment websites still dominate the country's online recruitment market, it is difficult to say whether the Chinese SNS sites can take a relatively big market share or even replace traditional recruitment websites in the coming years," said Zhang.