In a gimmick to see off competition from other online recruitment firms, Hong Kong-headquartered media advertising company Recruit Holdings Ltd plans to offer free lunches to corporate recruiters for five years.

Regan Su, CEO of 1010job.com, Recruit's mainland online arm, said yesterday in Beijing that the goal of the gimmick is to power the firm's rapid customer base growth.

The lunches are part of a bevy of free services the company plans to offer in its drive for expansion across China.

"We hope we can become one of the top five online recruitment websites in the mainland in one year," said Su.

At present, NASDAQ-listed 51job, Chinahr.com, which is controlled by US giant Monster, and Zhaopin.com, from the biggest Australian online recruitment firm Seek, lead the recruitment market ahead of dozens of smaller competitors.

A key growth strategy for 1010job is to expand into the national market from Shanghai.

When Recruit launched 1010job in 2005, it chose Shanghai to trial the service and began to publish a job-hunting newspaper and operate a website in the city. Today its newspaper has a circulation of 120,000 copies a week.

The Hong Kong Growth Enterprise Market-listed Recruit said in its mid-term report that its Shanghai operation began to contribute revenues in the first half since it started it in 2005, but it did not reveal the amount.

Su said that as the company has gained some experience in the city and is anxious for faster growth across the whole country, expanding business to other cities has become the natural choice.

The company formally kicked off its services in 11 cities on the mainland yesterday.

While there are already some established players, Su said, that does not mean that it is too late to break into the business.

According to a July release from the China Internet Network Information Centre, only 20 per cent of Chinese Internet users used the web to find a job.

"The main reason why these people do not use the Internet to find a job is the existing services in the market are just not meeting their needs," said Su.

The domestic research firm Analysys International said in a research note that a common problem for Chinese online recruitment websites is the entry barriers are very low and business models are highly similar.

It said a key factor to outdoing competitors is innovation, which Su said his company is aiming for.

While almost all other recruitment websites are focused on recruiters and the content of the websites are arranged according to recruitment advertisements, 1010job says job-hunter works through user-based information aggregation.

On the website, job-seekers can share their experience in finding jobs, interview skills and reviews of employers, so that people can help each other, rather than searching for jobs by themselves.

Another step 1010job is taking in its quest for rapid growth is an alliance with NetEase.com, a NASDAQ-listed Chinese Internet portal.

The two companies said yesterday that 1010job will provide content to the recruitment channel on NetEase's website and the recruitment channel will also be embedded into NetEase's mail system and online forums.

Michael Tong, chief operating officer of NetEase, one of the top three Internet portals and the biggest e-mail service provider in China, said one of the company's strengths was that most users are 18 to 25 years old just the right age to find a job.

"Recruitment is an important content for an Internet portal. We have been trying to find a partner throughout this year and 1010job's experience in Hong Kong and Shanghai attracted us," said Tong.

Su said Recruit expects to invest 15 million yuan (US$1.90 million) in the co-operation with NetEase.

He added that the company is ready to spend another US$10 million over the next two years, as the mainland has become a strategic market for its recruitment business.

According to Analysys, the online recruitment market reached 308 million yuan (US$38.94 million) in the first half of 2006, growing by around 8 per cent year-on-year.

Source: China Daily