Chinese recruitment websites (job boards) post heavy losses

A number of Chinese recruitment websites have posted heavy losses for the last quarter of 2008, with the three major rivals ChinaHR, Zhaopin.com and 51job all posting poor financial results for last year.

The results show the financial crisis hurting recruitment websites, as hiring slowed in the fourth quarter.

ChinaHR.com reported a high loss of RMB175m for 2008. Seek, Australia's leading recruitment website and Zhaopin.com’s major shareholder, with a 56.2 percent stake, revealed Zhaopin.com made a RMB170m loss last year, 3.5 times its loss in the second half of 2007.

51job meanwhile has released its results for the fourth quarter. Total revenues fell 8.1 percent in the final quarter of 2007 to RMB196.2m. Gross margin fell to 51 percent from 55.8 percent, while gross profit for the last quarter of 2008 was RMB94.5m, down from RMB112.8m for same period in 2007. Net income for the last quarter of 2008 fell to RMB6.8m from RMB13.7m for the same period of 2007.

Online recruitment revenues in the final quarter of 2008 fell 5.4 percent to RMB72.7m, from RMB76.9m year-on-year.

The company’s print advertising revenue per page for the last quarter also fell, by 28.2 percent from the same period in 2007. The estimated number of printed pages in the final quarter of 2008 decreased 12.9 percent year-on-year.

Net income for 2008 fell 26 percent to RMB76.6m, from RMB103.6m for 2007.

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