DOT-COMS: Victory Bells Still Ringing!

Nirmal Kumar, an Indian software engineer based in the US, is one of the

thousands who have been sent packing due to the US slowdown. Kumar, a qualified

computer engineer, is now doing what many have done since January this year–frequenting

job sites in search of a new job.

And recruitment sites like Naukri.com, people-one.com

(erstwhile go4careers.com), JobsDB.com, JobsAhead.com and Monster.com are

suddenly finding ready takers for their numerous offerings–not just free but

also paid ones. They have suddenly discovered a spurt in revenues and

registrations.

Job seekers must be pinning their hopes on the possibility

that the downturn will do a U-turn some day. Meanwhile, recruitment sites are

happy. Their database is building up each day, giving them a more negotiating

power with the recruiters–their biggest source of revenue.

Naukri.com, one of the first online employment exchanges in

India, bagged a cool Rs 1.22 crore in the year 2000-01 out of which a

substantial Rs 40 lakh was earned in February and March 2001. Sanjeev

Bikhchandani, CEO, Naukri.com, says, "More IT professionals are accessing

job sites given the slowdown in the tech sector. Naukri.com has announced a 100%

increase in the number of people accessing its site. Traffic has increased from

nine million page views in February to 15 million in April. The number of

resumes in IT Talent Bank, its recently started special section for IT

professionals, has reached 3,500.

JobsDB.com, another online recruitment site, recorded a

growth of 30% in registrations in the January-March quarter. KC John, MD,

JobsDB.com India, says, "We have noticed over the past two months is that

the number of registration from Indian professionals from USA has increased.

There’s been a peak of 300-350 registration on a typical weekday from USA as

job seekers."

While this may be normal, Ajit Isaac, CEO, people-one.com,

acknowledges, "The job market has definitely slowed down. Bench levels have

gone up in the US and therefore rates of recruitment will be at negative growth

levels. On the positive side, if this were to continue for longer, then

outsourcing from cheaper cost centers like India will increase, albeit with

competition from China."

Another player in the game, JobsAhead.com has recorded a

spurt of 30% in their hit rate in the past months of February to April. Puneet

Dalmia, CEO, JobsAhead.com, says, "The recession in US has required IT

professionals to look back at India and explore the other emerging markets like

Europe and East Asia. In fact, on analyzing the traffic to our site we have

found that the maximum non India-based visitors to our site come from the

US."

Monster.com has recorded 40,000 registrations in the quarter

of January-March. Willie Law, director, sales and service, Asia-Pacific,

Monster.com, says though companies may not be actively recruiting they are

continuing to build their database for the future.

While this trend may change once the US economy pulls out of

the recession, the US slowdown seems to have come as a boon for these sites and

e-recruiters are laughing all the way to the bank.

Shilpa Srivastava in New Delhi with Bijesh Kamath in Mumbai