The mid-life crisis of Zhaopin Recruitment

Comments cannot have just one voice.

Source | A Grain of Gold

Author Jin Buhuan

Recently, Zhaopin.com released a poster, which disclosed several sets of data:

The number of job seekers in a single day exceeded 5 million, the number of job seekers in a single day exceeded 16 million, and the traffic this week exceeded history for 4 consecutive days.

The huge words "Record Breaking" are shining with golden light, and paired with the bright red background, it exudes a festive atmosphere.

Relatives may be sad, and others may sing their own songs.

The joyous song of Zhaopin Recruitment is based on the lament of beaten workers.

Since last year, both the fate of the industry and the fate of individuals have been unpredictable and out of control.

The Internet, education, real estate, etc. have been hit hard one after another, and layoffs are rolling in.

The difficulties in life faced by every ordinary person are beyond our imagination.

Zhilian weaves the suffering of workers into good news to show off, which is somewhat inappropriate.

This kind of coquettish operation is like a middle-aged greasy uncle:

He can only constantly brag and exaggerate his experiences to show his excellence.

01 A few days ago, Maimai CEO Lin Fan blasted the online recruitment giant.

He said:

If there are no reviews, you should not apply.

Lao Jin thinks this should be changed to:

If there are no negative reviews, you should not apply.

Laojin logged into the Zhaopin Recruitment APP and found that it had already launched a review function, which was divided into three major categories:

Hot search list, positive review list and best employer.

But something happened that surprised Lao Jin:

All the comments under the company were praises.

Among the praise list, the first place is "Supply and Marketing Environment Technology Co., Ltd." There are only 91 comments in it, and almost all of them are positive.

The most popular comment is:

As a central enterprise, the company must have a correct political position, serve the people, and expand its business and market closely around the country's major policies.

This does not look like a recruitment review, but more like a recruitment presentation.

What’s even more outrageous is that there are many identical reviews.

Job seekers look like zombie fans on celebrity Weibo, and their comments are very trollish.

Lao Jin couldn’t help but wonder, where did all the bad reviews go?

I found the answer in a user's feedback.

This user said that after finding a job at Zhaopin, he was maliciously owed wages by his boss. He commented on the company's problems on the platform, but the comments could not be approved.

Later, after many experiments, it was discovered that only good reviews could be passed, and all negative reviews were blocked.

Full and objective company reviews are of great help to candidates.

The biggest pain point in the recruitment industry is information asymmetry and opacity.

Even in today's highly Internet-savvy world, it is still very difficult to see clearly a company, especially a large company.

The objective review mechanism has proven to be an effective mechanism to eliminate information asymmetry and opacity.

After platforms such as Taobao and Meituan launched review mechanisms, consumers’ screening capabilities have significantly improved.

Similarly, relying on real feedback from enough corporate employees can help candidates open their eyes.

Zhaopin’s castrated review function blocks this path.

When people reach middle age, various problems begin to appear: baldness, obesity...

Many middle-aged people wear wigs to cover up the few hairs they have left. Wear loose clothes to cover your increasingly prominent belly.

Zhaopin’s whitewashing of the review area seems to be covering up the “guilty conscience” of harvesting C-end users.

In January last year, Zhaopin CEO Guo Sheng said in an interview:

The recruitment industry generally protects B-side interests from being harmed, but Zhaopin Recruitment pays more attention to C-side users interests are not violated.

The CCTV March 15 party two months later made this sentence ironic.

It was disclosed at the party that you only need to register a corporate Zhaopin account and pay a membership fee of 60 yuan to download unlimited resume information of job seekers. One of the criminals involved 15 million pieces of personal resume information, and the amount involved was as high as 75 million yuan.

A large number of these resumes flow into the black market and are used by criminals to carry out scams.

Some netizens said that they encountered scams when they were looking for jobs on Zhaopin.

He submitted a resume related to new media operations on Zhaopin. Soon, someone called him for an interview.

During the interview process, HR said that after receiving training in the company, he could recommend high-paying jobs related to new media. The training fee is 27,000 yuan, which can be paid in installments. HR also recommended a loan software called "Rongyi Installment".

Eager to find a job, he paid for the training with an online loan.

After the training, he went to work and found that his salary had been discounted. The training taught only superficial things and he was completely unable to do the job.

When he felt that he had been cheated, the company showed on Zhaopin that it had been cancelled, and the scammer ran away.

Now, he has to find a new job and repay the loan every month. Life is extremely difficult.

C-end users like him are the foundation of recruitment companies. Recruitment companies that do not help more job seekers avoid pitfalls but create pitfalls themselves will be abandoned by users.

Currently, in terms of user activity, Zhaopin Recruitment has been far behind Boss Direct Recruitment.

03 When it comes to Boss Direct Recruitment and Zhaopin Recruitment, the two companies have a deep connection.

Zhao Peng, the founder of the former, once served as CEO of the latter.

In 2010, internal strife broke out among Zhilian’s top executives. Zhao Peng could not withstand the pressure from management and was forced out, and Guo Sheng became CEO.

After leaving, Zhao Peng founded Boss Direct Pin and became a strong rival of his old club.

Last year, Boss Direct Pin was successfully listed in the United States and turned a profit. After Zhaopin was listed in 2014, it was delisted in less than three years and was in a state of loss for a long time.

As a senior who has been fighting for many years, Zhaopin is not as popular as its juniors in terms of earning power. The reasons are:

It has offended some B-side business owners.

According to incomplete statistics, 80% of the revenue of recruitment platforms comes from B-side companies, which are typical financial sponsors.

In the face of business owners, some operations of Zhilian are not friendly.

Someone claiming to be a Zhaopin recruitment supplier once broke the news that during the peak job hunting season, Zhaopin paid people to submit a large number of fake resumes.

The specific operation is that the supplier collects the resumes of some fresh graduates and then randomly submits them to certain employers, creating the illusion that there are many job seekers on the Zhilian platform.

If the employer calls the student for an interview, the supplier also provides some words:

Just say that you have found a job.

This is actually equivalent to "brushing orders". Both suppliers and students who provide resumes will receive commissions.

After creating the illusion of prosperity, Zhaopin Recruitment began to “fool” business owners.

Last month, a corporate recruiter stated on "Black Cat Complaint" that he was deceived by Zhaopin:

The reason was that Zhaopin Sales contacted the recruiter, provided various data, and boasted about the size of his resume resource library, trying to get him to place an order.

Before placing an order, the recruiter clearly stated his recruitment needs, and the salesperson fully agreed.

Subsequently, the two parties signed a contract worth 7,680 yuan.

In the actual operation after placing the order, the recruiter found that the number of resumes given by the other party was not only insufficient, but also of very poor quality: most of the applicants did not answer the phone, or hung up after answering, or had no intention to apply for a job. .

He felt he had been cheated and complained. However, Zhaopin Sales made various excuses and made it clear that there would be no refunds. He had no choice but to go to "Black Cat Complaint" to defend his rights.

There are many other tricks that can fool business owners, such as malicious charges, irregular deduction rules, etc.

By offending the financier’s father, Zhaopin Recruitment is undoubtedly killing the goose that lays eggs and abandoning the market.

According to a report from the Qianzhan Industry Research Institute, the three leading companies in the online recruitment industry are 51job, Liepin and Boss Direct Pin. In 2020, in terms of revenue:

51job’s market share reached 34.2, Boss’ direct employment was 18.0, and recruitment recruitment was 17.3.

Zhaopin did not break into the top three and was classified as others.

You must know that Boss Direct Recruitment was born in 2014, a full 17 years later than Zhaopin Recruitment. The junior taught the senior a hard lesson.

If Zhaopin Recruitment continues like this, business owners will have to go to other platforms. At that time, it will be a crisis in their later years.

04 To alleviate Zhilian’s mid-life crisis, Lao Jin has a way.

Since it is both purchasing resumes and selling resumes, it is better to transform into a second-hand dealer in resume buying and selling.

You can make money, users are free from sin, and everyone is happy. The mid-life crisis is easily solved.

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