Is the Monster Back?

Five years since it left the shores of Australia it looks like the world’s largest job board is coming back . Which is a surprise, given the US office isn’t doing too well. The travails befalling the US headquarters recently is well documented. Job posting has fallen by 18% in May. So, is Monster trying to focus its energy on growing Asian economies and an Australian classifieds market predicted to reach $504.5 million by 2010?

Whatever transpires, the challenges for Monster in Australia will be formidable.

Firstly, five years is a long time in the job board business and Monster will find the going tough against very well entranced local players of all shape and sizes. The generalist space is well covered by the big three – Seek, MyCareer and CareerOne, with new upstarts like Jobsjobsjobs and JobX showing promising growth signs. The market is probably not large enough to accommodate another big generalist player.

Secondly, the Australian job board market is served by a wide range of successful and nimble niche operators. With barriers to entry almost non existent, agile and nimble operators armed with the latest technology and sharp domain focus are continuing to carve out market share (more on this in future posts).

Finally, historically, foreign owned job boards always find it tough in Australia. HotJobs , JobsDB and Monster itself were previous high profile failures. Job serve, one of the earliest and largest job boards in the UK, hasn’t been able to replicate its success here , even after acquiring the now defunct but one of Australia’s most successful niche job board – Jobnet.

Australia will provide stiff competition to anyone trying to enter the market. Nevertheless the job board industry is growing fast and opportunities remains. But, it will be good to see Monster bringing in something new to the market. Interestingly, a few Australia based jobs are advertised on the Monster USA site. Perhaps, Monster’s best strategy is to use its vast network of offices/sites to assist the 1 million strong Australian Diaspora by matching them with relevant employers when they decided to head back home.