I got promoted recently and the first thing I did was to update my profile on LinkedIn to share the news with all those who are part of my network. But, I did not do the same on naukri.com, a leading job hunt web portal where my profile exists, and will not probably do so unless I am looking for a change from my present organisation. That got me thinking. Taking my own example and that of several of my colleagues, I realised that naukri.com must be inundated with outdated profiles.
Here is where LinkedIn comes in. People use it as a social network of professionals and this poses a threat to naukri.com and its listed owner company, Info Edge.
Let me share another example. I recently got a connection request from a job aspirant who wanted to work with Value Research. Once I accepted his request, he started enquiring about the application procedure and was curious to know about the work culture in my company. Now again, where will you get the most trusted information about a workplace than from the existing employee himself? This is again not possible on naukri.com where either you are dependent on the company profile, job description or the consultant.
When I googled for Info edge, the very second result was a LinkedIn link where I got better snapshot of Info Edge as a company. Which itself proves the convenience of using LinkedIn as it gives informative and crisp insight about the employer you are looking for.
Due to all these factors, LinkedIn's user base in India has grown more than 400 per cent since 2009, making India the second largest user base in world with 20 million plus users. As per Alexa.com, which ranks websites based on user traffic, Linkedin is ranked 8 and naukri.com 34 in India.
Another glaring difference is the way both of them operate. Info Edge, with more than 2,500 employees and large base of marketing and sales team, has become more of a brick and mortar business whereas LinkedIn still has an e-commerce business model. Linkedin has focused on technology and improved it over time but on the other hand naukri.com has failed to do so. This became more apparent from the feedback of my recruitment manager who said naukri.com gives him millions of unwanted and unrelated outdated profiles in the search engine provided by them. He is more satisfied with LinkedIn as it gives him access to hundreds of updated active user profile as per the domain and skill requirements with a reply rate significantly more than naukri.com's.
As an e-commerce business, Info Edge should focus more on technological aspect and make its website more user-friendly. It will have to work hard on strengthening its core objective of playing the role of a perfect match maker in the hiring space or else it will fall prey to the upcoming behemoth, LinkedIn.
Ask Value Research 
New episodes every Friday 
New Process Alert 
Seems like you've uploaded a wrong QR code. Please upload the QR code downloaded from MF Central platform.
